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THE 



RESURRECTION 



BEDEEMED; 



AND 



H A. D E S 



By JAMES BOGGS. 






" Hangs ray helpless soul on thee.' 



PHILADELPHIA : 

J. B. LIPPIKCOTT & CO. 
1871. 






6, 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 

JAMES BOGGS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



PREFACE. 



THE subjects discussed in this volume have 
long been themes of study. Upon some 
of them I was, many years ago, accustomed to 
consult every lexicon I could obtain, and every 
translation. I have felt they are not my truths, 
they are God's ; and there are no thanks to 
me, if I have believed what I believed I 
found plainly written. They have not always 
been plainly translated. The translator ought 
not to say, " How can these things be ? " and 
therefore hesitate. It is enough for him that 
God has said it. 

They have been written at times many years 
apart, and for very different objects ; and are 
now collected in permanent form, with the hope 
that God may thereby be glorified. 

It is true Jesus is the great theme. 

3 



4 Preface. 

11 Thou, O Christ, art all I want," is the great 
theme of the Bible and of all heavens. With- 
out this great truth of truths, I would not 
give much for the Bible, or any other truth. 
But with it, every other truth is important. 
We have no right to neglect any truth — to live 
in any error. Truth is Divine. Error is Sa- 
tanic. Truth honors God. Error dishonors 
him. Truth refines, elevates, ennobles, sancti- 
fies, makes Godlike. Error is the very reverse 
of all this. It makes the fiend. 

No error is harmless. It vitiates and har- 
dens the heart, darkens the mind, veils some 
truth from the view, and obscures to the vision 
the full glories of the perfect God. Any error 
prevents the mind from seeing God, as he would 
otherwise have been seen. Remove all error 
from our minds, and we must see a perfectly 
good, great, and glorious God, whom we cannot 
but trust, love and obey. The clear perception 
of all truth would make us perfect Christians — 
relying implicitly on Christ. 

A single thought will often serve to dispel 



Preface. 5 

darkness and error, and to elicit other thoughts 
— to set men to thinking, and thus their minds 
may run on for years. A single thought may 
serve as a key to unlock stores of truth — shed 
floods of light, where all before was darkness. 
The mind must have some initiatory truth, or 
it must remain in darkness. I trust that, under 
God, I have been enabled to give more than 
one initiatory truth — more than one seed- 
thought. If thereby men are set to thinking, 
and truth is discerned, and mind and heart 
developed, my labor has not been in vain. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Resurrection of the Redeemed. . . 7 

Difficulties and Practical Duties 

of Life 57 

A Just God 95 

Christ's Agony in the Garden. . .123 

The Beginning and the End of Time. 141 

6 



RESURRECTION OF THE REDEEMED. 



SECTION I 



rfl H AT there is to be a resurrection of the 
-*- dead, and a change of the holy who are 
living at the appearing of Christ, is a truth so 
frequently and plainly taught in the word of 
God, that it is mysterious how any one can 
doubt, much less deny it. It is a truth which 
has a place in the creeds of all evangelical sects. 
Indeed, it is a truth which lies at the very foun- 
dation of the Gospel. If there is no resurrec- 
tion, we have no Gospel (Cor. xv. 16-19) : " For 
if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised ; 
and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; 
ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which 
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in 

7 



S Resurrection of 

this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of 
all men most miserable." 

It would seem that the whole hope of the 
patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs, was 
in the resurrection. To have blotted out their 
hope of it, would have left them in perfect dark- 
ness. It would have darkened all their future, 
and left them no hope beyond the present life. 
To have blotted out Paul's hope of the resurrec- 
tion, would have blotted out his hope in Christ. 
It would have left him, in all the future, nothing 
but a dark, cheerless, hopeless, unending night. 
It would have mantled him with the blackness 
of darkness • forever. Indeed, he who takes 
from us the hope of the resurrection, with its 
glorious, blessed change, takes from us the Gos- 
pel, and leaves us none, or only a false Gospel. 
If there is no resurrection, Paul positively testi- 
fies that all the sleeping dead, however holy 
they may have been, are perished. Then on 
every tombstone may be written perished. No 
comforter has any business to approach the bed 
of the dying. All the promises of the ever- 



the Redeemed. p 

blessed God have failed, and are good for noth- 
ing. "In this life only we have hope in 
Christ " — none beyond the fleeting present — 
none in all the endless future. Miserable men, 
we have believed a lie, and therefore our hope 
in Christ is fallacious — it must expire in 
death. 

Ah, he who takes away my hope of the resur- 
rection, may as well take away my Bible. He 
leaves me a mere book, one not worth having. 
He leaves me no Gospel — no glad tidings. He 
mantles my heavens with Egyptian darkness, 
and fills my whole future with despair. He 
only leaves me a few degrees above the brute. 
I can scarcely say I have any pre-eminence. 

And yet, notwithstanding, we have no hope 
except in the resurrection — no Gospel without 
it. There were in Paul's day, some who denied 
it — some who attempted to sap the very foun- 
dations of the Christian's hope — men who even 
pretended to be Christians. So even now, we 
see the same strange inconsistency — men pre- 
tending to believe the New Testament, and to 



io Resurrection of 

be Christians, and yet deny the resurrection! 
Ah, the Sadducees are not all dead. 

Paul, in the third chapter of Philippians, 
tells us what he had endured, and what he 
would endure in the hope of the resurrection. 
He would count all things but loss, and worse 
than loss, " if by any means he might attain 
unto the resurrection of the dead." Was there 
then any danger of his not being resurrected ? 
No, no. The resurrection of both the righteous 
and the wicked is most plainly taught in the 
word of God ; but it also teaches us that there 
is " a better resurrection." The true import of 
the original shows that is what Paul sought. 

The hope of Job, as it is recorded in the oldest 
of the sacred writings, was in the resurrection. 
"For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and 
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the 
earth ; and though after my skin worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : 
whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall 
behold, and not another, though my reins be 
consumed within me." (Job xix. 25-27.) See 



the Redeemed. it 

the Vulgate translation of this passage. Indeed 
the passages in the word of God on this sub- 
ject are so numerous, that I would just as soon 
think of denying any other doctrine of the Gos- 
pel, as the resurrection. 

The great change of the raised holy dead, 
and of the holy living, will take place at the 
resurrection, and at the appearing of our Lord. 
Paul says, " Behold, I show you a mystery ; we 
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 
in a moment, in the 'twinkling of an eye, at the 
last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and 
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we 
shall be changed." (1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.) Hence 
it is evident that the raising of the dead in 
Christ, and the changing of the holy living will 
take place at the appearing of our Lord. The 
holy dead will be raised and changed first. (1 
Thes. iv. 16.) It seems that the dead will be 
changed in their graves, or more probably in 
their rising ; for it is said they " shall be raised 
incorruptible." 

The holy, who are then living, will be changed 



12 Resurrection of 

without dying. Their change will be instanta- 
neous, " in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye." The word rendered " moment," implies a 
space of time so short, that it is not divisible. 
The twinkling of an eye, is the wink of the 
eye. There is a holy man, like Simeon, wait- 
ing and looking for the second coming of Christ, 
and, before he is aware, he is changed — in an 
instant he has put on immortality. 

The change which the dead in Christ, and 
the holy living, shall undergo, will be the same. 
Paul, including both classes, goes on to say, " For 
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and 
this mortal must put on immortality. So when 
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, 
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is 
written, death is swallowed up in victory." (1 
Cor. xv. 53, 54.) It is evident that both 
classes will put on immortality and incorrup- 
tion. God will make no difference between 
them, except that the dead in Christ shall have 
the precedence. 



the Redeemed. ij 

What will that glorious change be? The 
body of our humiliation shall be fashioned like 
the body of Christ's glory. (See the original of 
Phil. iii. 20, 21.) Christ was made like us in 
all things, sin and some of its necessary con- 
comitants excepted; and all the holy will be 
made like him in all things, infinity excepted. 
Yes, " When he shall appear, we shall be like 
him." (1 John iii. 2.) We shall bear the image 
of the heavenly One. What Christ now is, 
infinity excepted, we shall be. The body of 
our humiliation shall be made " like unto 
his glorious body," or as it is in the origi- 
nal, "to the body of his glory." The word 
rendered " like," implies likeness in form 
— summorphon. He is the pattern in all 
things. What his body now is, the bodies of 
the holy shall be. " The body of his glory," 
is the body which he now has in glory — his 
glorified body. It is the body of his exalta- 
tion, and not that of his humiliation, that ours 
shall be " fashioned like unto." They are to 
be like that risen, glorified body which ascended 



14 Resurrection of 

on high from the Mount of Olives. They are 
to be like that body which Jesus had when he 
appeared in the midst of his disciples, the doors 
being shut. Jesus as " the first-fruits of them 
that slept," rose from the dead, — the first of all 
the dead, and the model of the resurrection of 
all the holy dead. Therefore, as was his resur- 
rection, so will be that of all the holy. 

We learn but little respecting the resurrected 
body of Christ, for, during the forty days which 
he remained with his disciples, his glory was 
veiled, just as the glory of God was veiled, 
when he appeared to, and talked with Abraham. 
(Gen. xviii. 1-33.) But during those forty days, 
it is evident he could vanish out of their sight 
at his pleasure — that he could appear in their 
midst, the doors being shut — that he was not 
bound down to earth by gravitation, as he was 
before his death, but he could go where, when, 
and as he pleased — that his body was in a kind 
of an electroid state, of which science has given 
us some faint glimmerings of light. When the 
time of his ascension had arrived, of his own 



the Redeemed. 15 

power he ascended to heaven. Gravitation had 
no more power over him than it has over an 
angel. 

His body, the glory being veiled, in appear- 
ance, was in every respect like what it had been 
before it was laid in the grave. There could be 
seen the print of the nails and of the spear. It 
was a body which could be handled and felt. It 
was not a spirit, but a real body which had 
flesh and bones. It was a body which ate and 
drank with his disciples, just as it had done 
before his death, and as it will drink of the 
fruit of the vine with us in our Father's king- 
dom. (Mat. xxvi. 29 ; Mark xiv. 25 ; Luke 
xxii. 18, etc.) It is evident that what Christ's 
body was during the forty days he was with his 
disciples after his resurrection, it still is • and 
what it now is, our changed bodies shall be. 

Of the glory of Christ's resurrected body, 
we learn but little in the Gospels ; for during 
his sojourn on earth after his resurrection, as 
has been stated, it was veiled. John, on the 
isle of Patmos was in something of an electroid 



i6 Resurrection of 

state, and therefore able to behold and endure, 
what, in the ordinary state, he could not, and saw 
a little of his glory. But though in spirit, he 
fell at his feet as dead. What then would have 
been the effect, if he had been in the ordinary 
state ? What the body of Christ's glory, or the 
body of his exaltation is, and what our glorified 
body will be, we can learn a little from various 
passages of God's word. 

We learn from our Saviour that those who 
attain to the resurrection, (literally, that " out 
from the dead ones,") will be equal to, or as the 
angels. (Luke xx. 36 \ Mat. xxii. 30 ; Mark 
xii. 25.) 

In the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, 
we learn more respecting Christ's glorified body, 
and what ours will be, than from any other 
portion of the blessed book. Paul there says 
of the body, " It is sown in corruption, it is 
raised in incorruption ; it is sown in dishonor, 
it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness, it 
is raised in power ; it is sown a natural (animal) 
body, it is raised a spiritual body." Again he 



the Redeemed. ij 

adds, " For this corruptible must put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal must put on immor- 
tality. So when this corruptible shall have put 
on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put 
on immortality, then shall be brought to pass 
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up 
in victory." He also indirectly states, that the 
resurrected body shall be a celestial one. To 
sum up all the various characteristics of the 
resurrected and changed body, as here recorded-, 
it will be glorious, powerful, incorruptible, im- 
mortal, spiritual and celestial. 

An incorruptible body will be one not subject 
to corrupt nor decay. It can have no sickness, 
pains, aches, diseases, nor changes for the worse. 
None of all the inhabitants of the " better 
country " will ever say, " I am sick." 

*' His own soft hand shall wipe the tears 
From every weeping eye ; 
And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears 
And death itself shall die." 

To him there " shall be no more curse " — no 

fatigue — no labor with weariness — no ennui 

— no depression — no heart nor body ache. 
B 



i8 Resurrection of 

Though there will be no idleness among all the 
holy, there will be no weariness. Indeed, it is 
extremely doubtful if the indolent and slothful 
of this world can enter there — certainly not 
unless Jesus effects in them a sovereign cure. 
But all their labor will afford pleasure, not 
lassitude and pain. 

In consequence of their incorruption, they 
will be immortal. "This mortal shall put on 
immortality," as well as " this corruptible put 
on incorruption." Immortal merely means not 
mortal. That which is immortal cannot die. 
Its life must be eternal. Hence we read, "And 
there shall be no more death." 

Immortality cannot be a blessing, unless it is 
an immortality of happiness; and such shall be 
the immortality of those who shall be " made 
like the Son of God." They will be most 
blessed, for all their sins being pardoned, and 
their "consciences being purged from dead 
works," and therefore being " void of offence 
toward God and toward men," there will be an 
sntire exemption from everything that can in 



the Redeemed. ip 

the least mar their happiness. Where there is 
no sin, there can be no unhappiness. Incor- 
ruption will exempt them from every physical 
cause that can in the least mar their enjoyment. 
Consequently, they shall not suffer one of the 
ills to which flesh is now heir ; and perfect 
holiness and conformity to God's will, will pre- 
vent the entrance of every moral cause of unhap- 
piness. Hence it will be an immortality worth 
having — an immortality of uninterrupted and 
unmixed blessedness. 

We also learn that all the dishonor which sin 
has brought upon our bodies will be removed. 
The low state of humiliation in which they now 
lie will no more be seen nor felt. Our bodies 
shall be " raised in glory." It will be such 
glory as the Son of God is now crowned with. 
There shall be no blot, mark, nor remain of sin 
left on us, nor about us. Every source of 
shame will be eternally removed. It seems 
that at least upon some of the earth-born citi- 
zens of the heavens, there will be more glory 
conferred than upon the un fallen ; for they 



20 Resurrection of 

shall be exalted by Jehovah Jesus to his 
throne. 

He who was once " the man of sorrows," but 
is now exalted at his Father's throne, saith to 
the inhabitants of earth — not to those of any 
other world — " To him that overcometh will I 
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 
overcame, and am set down with my Father in 
his throne." (Rev. iii. 21.) He never so speaks 
to the unfallen, the native inhabitants of the 
heavens. Yes, it appears evident, that through 
faith in Jesus, there are sons of Adam, who 
will be clothed with more glory than any among 
the unfallen — with more glory than even 
Gabriel ! They will have nearer access to him, 
and sustain a nearer relationship to him, than 
any among the unfallen. They will have such 
an heirship of God, as none of the unfallen 
have. They are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs 
with Jesus Christ." The Son of God was for 
u a little while " made " lower than the angels," 
in order that he may raise some of the sons of 
Adam eternally higher than they — perhaps, I 



the Redeemed. 21 

might say a great deal higher — and crown them 
with vastly more glory than the angels. Truly 
those bodies which " were sown in dishonor " — 
most horribly dishonored by sin — "will be raised 
in glory." 

Bodies which are " sown in weakness, will be 
raised in power." Onr bodies are now much 
weaker than many of the lower orders of crea- 
tion; and there are periods in our existence, 
when we are among the most helpless and 
dependent; but in our state of exaltation, we 
shall cease to be weak. " Raised in power ! " 
How powerful ? Equal to the " mighty angels," 
" who excel in strength." (Luke xx. 36.) From 
the little which the Bible tells us, we may 
judge of their power. The Psalmist says : 
" Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in 
strength." (Psalms ciii. 20.) From this it is 
evident that, in strength, they excel all created 
beings. The restored, glorified, exalted man, 
being equal to them, will therefore be among 
the mightiest of the sons of creation. 

One angel slew one hundred and eighty -five 



22 Resurrection of 

thousand of the Assyrians in one night. In three 
days, an angel smote of Israel, from Dan to Beer- 
sheba, seventy thousand men. So from other 
passages of the Word of God, it is evident their 
power is unequalled ; and, to us, seems to be 
almost unlimited. As is their strength, so will 
be the strength of man's glorified body. In all 
the " better country," there will be no one who 
can say, " I am weak." 

Another characteristic of the glorified body 
will be, that it will be " spiritual " — -just as the 
body of Jesus is now spiritual. Our bodies are 
now " animal." (1 Cor. xv. 44.) In our trans- 
lation it is very incorrectly rendered " natural." 
In the Vulgate and Beza, it is rendered " corpus 
animale" — animal body. By David Martin, 
and Osterwold, " corps animal." In the Span- 
ish, " cuerpo animal" By Diodati, " corpo 
animale" By Almeida, " corpo animal." In many 
other languages and translations, it is so ren- 
dered. " Natural " is so very far from being a 
correct translation, that I shall not use it. This 
animal or soul body — u soma psuchikon " — shall 



the Redeemed. 23 

be raised a " spiritual body." If any one 
wishes to know why I use animal body and 
soul body as synonymous, let him look at the 
etymology of the word animal, also at the use 
of the Anglo-Saxon word sawle, and he will see 
that I am justified in doing so. 

The word spiritual means of, or belonging to 
spirit, partaking of the nature of spirit, just as 
animal means partaking of the anima or soul. 
The spiritual body will be such a body, that 
while it is flesh and bones (Luke xxiv. 39), like 
the resurrected body of the Son of God, it will 
also partake of the properties of spirit. Of 
some of these we know nothing, and of others, 
but little. Some have supposed that instead of 
being vitalized by blood, as ordinary flesh is, it 
will be vitalized by spirit ; and hence, cannot, 
like the animal, be termed " flesh and blood." 
(1 Cor. xv. 20.) This is, perhaps, mere conjec- 
ture, and if true, throws but little light upon 
the difficulty. What is vitalized by spirit ? It 
is certain it will not be ordinary, unchanged flesh 
and blood. Science would also seem to intimate 



24 Resurrection of 

to us, that it will be in a highly electroid 
state. 

In consequence of its partaking of the pro- 
perties of spirit, it will not be bound down to 
earth, as animal bodies are. The animal bodies 
of the most intellectual and spiritual, owing to 
the power of gravitation, can no more soar on 
high, than a lump of clay or lead ; but at its 
pleasure, the spiritual body will be able to rise 
wherever it pleases. Gravitation will be no 
barrier to its progress ; and it will be limited to 
no world. The spiritual body will be possessed 
of so much electricity, or an electroid, as to 
neutralize the gravitating power. Hence, like 
angels, at its pleasure, it will be able to pass 
from world to world, throughout the vast 
realm of Jehovah ; and not only to do so, but 
to do it in an inconceivably short space of time. 

Man with his spiritual body, while he " will 
inherit the earth " (Mat. v. 5 ; Ps. xxxvii. 9, 
11, 22, 29, et al.), and "reign on the earth" 
(Rev. v. 9, 10, et al.), will, doubtless, visit all 
parts of Jehovah's empire. There will be no 



the Redeemed. 25 

world too distant for him to visit, for he " will 
be equal to the angels." Perhaps, he may be 
able to visit the various parts of Jehovah's 
realm with a velocity equal to, or exceeding 
that of electricity. 

Because Christ had a spiritual body after his 
resurrection, he could vanish at his pleasure, 
and at the appointed time ascend to his Father's 
throne. Such, doubtless, are attributes of all 
spiritual bodies. In consequence of it, Enoch 
and Elijah, having received their spiritual 
bodies, could pass beyond the bounds of our 
atmosphere, and onward to the New Jeru- 
salem ; — in consequence of it, Elijah could 
return through non-atmospheric space, with 
Moses, a spirit, to the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion, converse with Jesus, vanish, and then 
return again to the Holy City. Moses was a 
spirit, and as such could pass through all space, 
atmospheric and non-atmospheric ; but Elijah 
only could go with him, because he had a spiri- 
tual body, that is, one possessed of the proper- 
ties of spirit. It was in consequence of their 



26 Resurrection of 

having their spiritual bodies, that those who 
came out of their graves after Christ's resur- 
rection, were able to ascend with him to the 
Holy City, the New Jerusalem. Eeturning 
with the King of kings, when he ascended to 
his throne, they were the trophies of his con- 
quests in death's realm. (Eph. iv. 8, margin.) 
They were the indubitable evidences that Jesus 
had conquered death and Hades, in their own 
dominion. So conquerors used to return from 
the conquered country, with their train of cap- 
tives, the unmistakable evidences of their con- 
quests. So those who came out of their graves 
after his resurrection, and went with him into 
the Holy City, were the indisputable evidences 
that he had not only been in death's realm, but 
that he had returned a conqueror. 

It will be because of their having spiritual 
bodies, that the raised dead, and the living 
changed, will be able to ascend to meet their 
Lord in the air, and escort him to earth. It is 
in consequence of their having spiritual bodies, 
that Gabriel and other angels, " who stand in 



the Redeemed. 27 

God's presence/' have been able so frequently 
to visit the earth, and " minister to the heirs of 
salvation." The holy volume has only given 
us a little information, and that is generally in- 
cidental ; but enough is said to show that there 
will be great glory, as well as great privileges 
connected with the spiritual body. It will 
possess this great advantage over those who are 
in the spirit state, that it will be a natural 
state, while the spirit state is an unnatural one. 
The spirit state has been introduced by sin. 
Had there been no sin, that state or condition 
would not have existed in any world. It is a 
penal state, and not one of glorious reward. It 
is the reward of transgression — the penalty of 
violated law. The spiritual body is the reward 
of obedience. With the unfallen, it is the re- 
ward of their own obedience. With fallen man, 
it will be the reward of the obedience and death 
of Christ 1 but bestowed only on those who put 
their trust in him. To sinful man it is all of 
grace. 

We also learn that the body of our exaltation, 



28 Resurrection of 

like Christ's glorious body, will be a celestial 
one. It will be, in all respects, such as the 
heavenly inhabitants have. It will partake of 
such a nature and of such properties as theirs. 
Paul states that there are bodies celestial. Not 
that there will be, but that there are. Who are 
the beings possessed of celestial bodies ? I have 
no hesitation in saying, every unfallen, glorified 
being. I say glorified being, for I have no 
doubt, bat there are beings in unfallen worlds 
who have not yet been changed, and therefore 
have not spiritual and celestial bodies. 

That angels have celestial bodies, is to me per- 
fectly plain; but I must not now ofiPer the 
proof. Indeed it is a mystery to me, how any 
man can read his Bible and believe otherwise. 
I am persuaded that if the Ptolemaic system of 
Astronomy had not once prevailed, and men so 
long formed their Theology in accordance with 
that false system that their theological opinions 
had become stereotyped, they would not, and 
could not, after reading their Bibles, have 
doubted that angels have spiritual and heavenly 



the Redeemed. 



2 9 



bodies. When men take false philosophy, or 
false astronomy as their data, instead of the in- 
fallible Revelation of God, it is no wonder that 
their conclusions are false. For many centu- 
ries, men embraced the testimony of Ptolemy 
with reference to the heavens and earth, instead 
of that of Moses and Paul, and as yet many 
theologians have not got beyond the necessary 
inferences. It is hard for us to unlearn the 
stereotyped errors of our fathers. 

Let men believe with Ptolemy, that outside 
of this world, there is no solid ground — no 
solid orb, and if they locate beings outside of 
this world, they must necessarily be bodiless ones. 
As it was impossible for men to believe their 
Bibles, and deny the existence of intelligent 
beings outside of this world, therefore, believ- 
ing Ptolemy, they must make those beings as 
incorporeal and unsubstantial as the worlds 
they inhabit. Hence some have denied the 
resurrection, and others have made the resur- 
rected bodies as ethereal and unsubstantial as 

the world they should inhabit. They could 
3* 



jo Resurrection of 

twist and torture their Bibles, but they would 
not serve Ptolemy so. 

We all know how hard it is to change stereo- 
typed views, however false they may be. 
Hence, though a true system of Astronomy has 
located solid worlds outside of this, it is hard 
for Theology to people them with real, solid cor- 
poreal beings. Theologians are too fearful of 
materialism to people those worlds ; and espe- 
cially would it alarm them, to admit that there 
may be on them beings having celestial bodies. 
Thus, the influence of Ptolemy remains long 
after his system has died. 

As the Copernican system truthfully locates 
solid worlds outside of this, and as God has 
made nothing in vain, I am not afraid, in view 
of many passages of God's word, to say there 
are intelligent beings on those worlds, who have 
bodies ; and that at least a part of those bodies 
are now spiritual and heavenly. They have 
faithfully stood their day of probation, and 
hence have been changed, as the redeemed 
through Jesus will be. To those bodies of the 



the Redeemed. 31 

glorified inhabitants of other worlds, our bodies 
shall be so far alike, that they also may properly 
be termed heavenly. There may be great diver- 
sity in the ranks, forms, sizes, etc., of the hea- 
venly bodies, and yet all be celestial ; just as 
there are great diversity in the earthly bodies, 
and yet they are all terrestrial. Indeed, our 
Bibles teach us to look for great diversity among 
the heavenly. But on this point there is a 
great deal of indefiniteness. 

Such are some of the great and glorious 
changes, which await the redeemed of earth in 
their state of exaltation. How important that 
we inquire whether we have the characteristics 
of the heavenly citizen, or whether our citizen- 
ship is only earthly ? If it is only earthly, no 
such changes await us. We can claim no such 
glorious promises. No heavenly rights, privi- 
leges, and glory await him, whose citizenship is 
merely earthly — who instead of feeling that he 
is a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, feels that 
it is his home. No change awaits such — no ex- 
altation, but they must sink from deep to deeper 
depths of humiliation. 



J2 Resurrection 



of 



SECTION II. 

ril H E question may arise in the mind of the 
reader, as it has in other minds, how can 
these things be ? How can bodies which have 
mouldered back to dust thousands of years ago, 
and have been scattered by a thousand winds to 
every quarter of the globe, be raised again ? 
How can that body which has, perhaps, entered 
into the formation of a thousand other bodies, 
and it may be ten thousand others, rise again ? 
It is an acknowledged fact that the human 
body, which decomposes and returns to dust 
and gases, must again enter into the formation 
of all kinds of bodies. Hence the matter of 
which our active limbs are formed, will before 
long enter into the formation of vegetables and 
animals — yes, the very meanest of animals. A 
very large proportion of the human body passes 



the Redeemed. jj 

off in the form of gas, and is carried by the 
wind in every direction. Gas is continually 
passing off from the living, as well as decom- 
posing bodies, and very readily enters into the 
formation of vegetable and animal bodies. It 
is a part of the food on which vegetables live, 
and through them, on which animals live. 

All organized matter on the earth, is continu- 
ally changing and changing. Indeed, almost 
all matter on the surface of the earth changes 
and changes continually. Change is a great law 
of the universe ; and I believe it will be an 
eternal law. It is said, a very large propor- 
tion of the surface of the earth, has at some 
period or other, entered into the formation of 
living organizations — yes, that we can scarcely 
set our foot on the ground, unless it be on the 
sand, without treading on that which once was 
living flesh. Ah, the life of all flesh is short, 
incomparably shorter than that of the animal 
of which it composes a part. All over the sur- 
face of the earth, there is that which once was 

living flesh. Earth is but one vast grave-yard 

C 



34 Resurrection of 

an Aceldama. All living bodies are changing. 
No living organization is permanent. Our 
bodies are constantly changing. No living 
body, in its normal state, can for two days be 
composed of exactly the same matter. Our 
bodies are not what they were yesterday. They 
are not what they will be to-morrow. The mat- 
ter of which living bodies are composed is con- 
tinually passing away, and its place is supplied 
with fresh matter. Therefore, everything that 
lives must eat, for the purpose of supplying 
this waste. Vegetables, to some extent, undergo 
similar changes, and must have food to supply 
their wastes. 

As far as the same matter is concerned, we 
are not the same for two hours. From every 
part of our bodies, old or effete matter is con- 
tinually passing off. The surface of the skin is 
covered with pores, or very small openings, 
smaller than the point of the finest needle. It 
is said that a single grain of sand will cover 
75,000 of these pores. Through them the old 
or effete matter, as a very fine vapor, is continu- 



the Redeemed. 35 

ally escaping. As that waste is continually 
supplied by our daily food, we do not miss it. 
It is estimated that the human body — flesh and 
bones — undergoes an entire change in seven 
years. Therefore, our bodies must be entirely 
different from what they were seven years ago. 
It is evident, that the change is very rapid, for 
if a person does not eat for several days, whether 
it be occasioned by sickness or any other cause, 
his flesh is very much reduced. In a few days it 
is almost all gone. It, in some diseases, wastes 
away in a few hours. Ordinarily it is occa- 
sioned by the natural waste of the system. In 
health, our food supplies that waste, and there- 
fore it is not discernible. Usually in health, 
the waste is equally as great as in sickness, and 
frequently much greater ; for in sickness, the 
pores are more or less closed, and consequently 
they do not perform their office, and therefore 
more or less effete matter is retained in the 
system. 

Here are difficulties which have been urged 
against the resurrection. Opposers have told 



j6 Resurrection of 

us of all these changes which our bodies are 
continually undergoing ; and they wish to know 
what is the matter which is to enter into the 
resurrection body ? — whether it will be the same 
matter of which our bodies were composed at 
death, or whether they will be composed of all 
the matter which has ever entered into their 
formation ? If all the matter shall enter into 
our future bodies, they will be of gigantic pro- 
portions. The man who has lived nearly one 
thousand years, may be more than one thousand 
times larger than an ordinary sized man. 

Again, it is inquired, where the matter has a 
great many times entered into the formation of 
human bodies, whose shall it be in the resur- 
rection ? They tell us, the decomposed matters 
of human bodies have been scattered by 
thousands of winds, and may have been taken 
up by ten thousand different plants, so that they 
may have entered into the formation of many 
thousand kinds of different bodies, and into 
thousands of human bodies. In proportion to 
the length of time since they came into exis- 



the Redeemed. 37 

tence will, usually, be the number of those 
transformations, or transmigrations of the mat- 
ter of which their bodies have, at different 
times, been composed. That which, at one 
time, was a component part of the body of a 
king, may at another time have been a compo- 
nent part of the body of a beggar — that of a 
lord, at another, of a slave or a peasant. The 
component parts of Solomon's body may have 
become the component parts of the bodies of 
idiots, or of your body, or mine. Also, at their 
deaths, the same particles of matter may have 
been parts of two, or of many individuals, who 
have lived in different generations ; therefore, into 
whose body shall they enter at the resurrection ? 
The dust of a dead person may be in different 
parts of the world. One arm may be in one 
quarter of the globe, and another in another, 
while the body may be in still another. Also, 
the gases arising from the decomposing body, 
may be carried by the wind into all parts of 
the earth. How then shall the sleeping dust 
be gathered together ? 



'j8 Resurrection of 

Such are some of the objections which have 
been urged against the resurrection. In view 
of them, the resurrection has appeared to some 
minds to be an impossibility. In the days of 
the Apostles, as now, there were those who re- 
garded it as impossible for God to raise the 
dead. 

With God, anything and everything, which 
does not imply a contradiction, or a wrong, is a 
possibility. He has collected our bodies from 
every quarter of the globe. He can do it again. 
The wind, as his minister, frequently passes 
round and round the earth. It comes from all 
quarters, bearing gases which enter into the 
formation of vegetable and animal bodies, and 
by eating them, they become parts of our bodies. 
He who can by one agent collect these bodies 
from every quarter of the globe, can, if neces- 
sary, by numerous agencies, which are at his 
command, collect the sleeping dust from all 
parts of the earth. 



the Redeemed. 39 



SECTION III. 

A QUESTION arises, what constitutes our 
corporeal identity f Of this we cannot 
speak positively, any more than we can of what 
constitutes the I. How often do we speak of 
I, I, but how little do we know about the great 
egotistic, self-important I? Indeed, we are 
almost perfect strangers to everything. The 
most learned do little more than learn to know 
how ignorant they are. Few men know enough 
to know that they are truly ignorant. 

Though we are told our bodies have been 
entirely changed within the last seven years, so 
that, in some sense, they are entirely different 
bodies, yet we know that in a most important 
sense, they are still the same. Change as I may, 
and often as I may, I know it is the same body. 
Its identity has not been lost with its perishing 



#0 Resurrection of 

parts. It may be fifty or one hundred years 
old, or like Methuselah, nearly one thousand 
years old, but still it has not lost its identity. 
Notwithstanding the constant changes which 
have been taking place in your body, you know 
you are the same person you were seven, or 
seventy-seven years ago. No time, no change 
can destroy your identity. We all know our- 
selves as the same, and others know us as the 
same, though we or they may be unable to tell 
all the whys and the wherefores. Though 
you may be unable to answer all the objections, 
no one could possibly convince you, that during 
the last seven years you had lost your identity, 
either in body or mind. Hence, notwithstand- 
ing our ignorance, we learn that it is not neces- 
sary for us to have exactly the same matter in 
our bodies, nor any part of the same, in order 
to constitute us the same persons. Were it 
necessary, we would not be exactly the same 
persons for two days ; and in seven years, we 
would be entirely different — a somebody else. 
If the arguments of the Infidel and the Sad- 



the Redeemed. 41 

ducee are valid, then the man who has lived forty- 
nine years, has during that time been so changed, 
that he has been seven entirely different persons, 
or he has entirely lost his corporeal identity 
seven times. The man who has lived seventy 
years, has lost his corporeal identity ten times, 
and Methuselah must have lost his, during his 
lifetime, more than one hundred and thirty- 
eight times. Now, though we may be unable 
to give the correct why, yet we know that such 
arguments as would prove that we have in any 
sense lost our identity, must be false. We 
know that we neither have lost, nor can lose, 
our corporeal identity — nay, that it cannot 
in' the least be changed. The man who has 
lived seventy years, notwithstanding all the 
changes his body has undergone, is, in every 
important sense, the same person. No possible 
argument would convince him or you to the 
contrary. Therefore, we learn that there is a 
something else than the same matter entering 
into the formation of the body, that constitutes 

its identity. What that is may puzzle the 
4* 



42 Resurrection of 

philosopher to tell, but the fact the most igno- 
rant know. 

Hence we learn from the phenomena of life, 
that it is not necessary that the very same mat- 
ter that is laid in the grave should enter into 
the resurrection body, in order to make it the 
same. If it is true that the body undergoes an 
entire change in seven years, and does not lose 
its identity, then it is not necessary that any of 
the ordinary matter that was laid in the grave 
— any of the visible, tangible matter — should 
enter into the resurrection body, in order to its 
identity. Thus, though we may be unable to 
give the whys, yet we see that all the difficulties 
which infidelity can urge against the resurrec- 
tion of the identical body, can be urged against 
our every-day corporeal identity. 

I believe I have met all the principal objections 
which have been urged against the resurrection. 
If their arguments prove anything, they prove 
too much — they destroy our every-day identity. 
Hence, notwithstanding our ignorance, we can 
see the utter falsity of their objections. Here we 



the Redeemed. 43 

might drop our argument, and conclude, that 
if Infidelity cavils, she does so, because she 
wants to cavil — she will not believe, because 
she does not want to believe. Oh, who can 
honestly and carefully reflect upon our every- 
day, and e very-year changes, and yet think it 
"a thing impossible for God to raise the 
dead?" 

But let us go to the Word of God, and see if 
it throws any light on this difficult question of 
identity. If it does not, in vain do we specu- 
late — in vain do we look to any other quarter 
for light. If God does not give us light, the 
subject is too deep for mere human speculation 
— too deep for the philosophy and science of 
man to penetrate, and tell us the hows, the 
whys and the wherefores. Philosophy could 
never have invented the glorious doctrine of 
man's resurrection, spiritualization and glorifi- 
cation — no, never. 

With the aid of Revelation, Philosophy can 
see beautiful analogies in nature ; and talk very 
learnedly of the changes which insects undergo 






44 Resurrection of 

— of the butterfly having passed from its larva 
or worm-state to its pupa, nympha or chrysalis 
state, and then passing into its imago or perfect 
state, a perfect butterfly. In these changes, 
they can see that which is somewhat analogous 
to the resurrection. In its last change, as if 
resurrected, it seems to come to life again — a 
new life — an incomparably more glorious and 
beautiful one than that of the low, ugly, despised, 
crawling worm. It now soars above the earth, 
and seems to be destined for higher spheres. But 
with all the analogies of nature — with all their 
butterflies, and insect changes — the learned philo- 
sophic Greeks were so perfectly ignorant of the 
resurrection, that when Paul preached it to them, 
they seem to have taken the very word for the 
name of a new and unknown goddess. 

, The fullest account we have of the resurrection 
is in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. 
In that chapter Paul entirely disclaims the idea 
that the entire matter of which the body is com- 
posed will be resurrected. He says : " But 
some man will say, How are the dead raised up ? 



the Redeemed. 45 

and with what body do they come ? Thou fool ! 
that which thou sowest is not quickened, except 
it die : and that which thou sowest, thou sowest 
not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may 
chance of wheat, or of some other grain : but 
God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to 
every seed his own body." Every one knows 
that the grain of wheat which is sown in the 
field, produces a grain of wheat, not barley 
nor oats ; and while it produces wheat, it is 
not the precise matter which was sown. To 
us it would seem that there is not a particle 
of sensible matter that was sown, that is reaped. 
The grain perishes, and yet there is a something 
in the grain which does not perish with the 
perishing body of the seed. We do not know 
the name nor the nature of that something, yet 
we do know there is a something. We cannot 
say whether that something is sensible matter 
or not. To me, it seems that it must be insen- 
sible. We cannot tell the how, but we know 
there is a something, which, while almost the 
whole of the grain perishes, and becomes the 



46 Resurrection of 

food of the young plant, does not perish. It 
appears evident that all or almost all of the 
sensible matter of the old grain perishes, and 
becomes the food of the new plant. Its per- 
ishing is necessary to the existence of the young 
plant, for it draws its nourishment from the 
parent grain, before it is capable of obtaining it 
from any other source. For the want of a bet- 
ter name we will for the present call that 
imperishable something, a germ. 

Now, as Paul uses the figure, we may be 
allowed to suppose that there is an analogy be- 
tween the resurrection of the human body and 
that of the new grain from the old seed. As 
has been stated, the precise what in the old 
grain that does not perish we know not, but 
we do know that there is a something. Hence, 
we are justified by the reasoning of Paul, in be- 
lieving that there is a something which does not 
perish ivith the human body — a something which 
is in some sense analogous to that something in 
the grain of wheat or other seed which does 
not perish. 



The Redeemed 47 

That unknown something in man, which is im- 
perishable, and is the germ of the resurrection 
body, as it has been the germ of the present 
body, is, doubtless, that which constitutes its 
identity. Man has it in infancy, he has it 
through life, he will have it in the resurrection, 
and through eternity. It changes not with the 
changes of the body, and it will not perish with 
the body, any more than it perishes with the 
sown seed, which grows. 



48 Resurrection of 



SECTION IV. 

THERE is an invisible something which 
God brings into existence, before the visible, 
sensible plant, tree, animal, or man, is brought 
into existence. It appears to be the germ and 
model of that which is to be. In the original 
creation, in each and every species, it was the 
first created. Thus we learn in Gen. ii. 5, that 
God created every plant of the field before it 
was in the earth, and every herb of the field 
before it grew. That first created something, 
which constitutes the identity of the plant and 
herb, was, and doubtless is, invisible ; and from 
this invisible the visible was produced. Hence, 
we learn, in Heb. xi. 3, as translated by the 
Vulgate, and the Syriac, two of the oldest and 
very best translations, " So that the things that 
are seen, were made from things that are 



the Redeemed. 49 

unseen." This translation is sustained by Cal- 
vin, Erasmus, Grotius, Tholuck, Olshausen, 
Elrain, an others. It appears to be certain, 
that prior to the visible plant, there was an un- 
seen living something, which constituted its 
identity, or in which its identity lay. This 
something was the first created of the plant, and 
from it the plant was produced. From the 
language of Paul, in Hebrews, and from col- 
lateral passages, it seems evident that the visi- 
bles have been produced from their own invisi- 
bles. 

In view of various passages and facts, we are 
led to believe that when Adam was created, 
his invisible was first created, and from it, God 
produced his visible body. In him, as in every 
other living thing, the seen was made from the 
unseen. That unseen, which was the first 
created in every living thing, from the vegetable 
up to man, constitutes in each its real identity. 
The invisible most probably constitutes the 
identity of the visible ; and while the visible 
changes and changes, the invisible remains the 



§0 Resurrection of 

same. It does not, and cannot pass from us, 
and enter into the composition of plants, trees, 
animals, nor other men ; but it is ours — our 
identity. It will enter into, and constitute the 
identity of the spiritual body. 

Having this unseen something, notwithstand- 
ing all the changes from infancy to extreme old 
age, we are still the same. We may be amaci- 
ated by disease, but we know that, in the most 
important sense, our bodies are still the same. 
Disease may reduce the extremely corpulent 
man from hundreds of pounds to less than fifty ; 
but still he has the same body. No one doubts 
his identity. The shadow of a doubt never 
enters his own mind. A sudden restoration to 
his extreme corpulence will not shake his faith 
in his identity. 

This invisible something helps to explain a 
great many changes, and strange phenomena, 
with which surgeons are familiar. Were our 
readers surgeons, it might be profitable to refer 
to many very striking and indisputable phe- 
nomena which are often witnessed — phenomena, 



the Redeemed. 51 

which prove that though a member of the body 
may be amputated, sensation does not entirely 
cease with the amputation. There are facts — 
not fancies — not mere imagination, which prove, 
though we may not know how to explain it, 
that though the visible is amputated the invisi- 
ble is not. It remains intact. It is a strange 
and interesting field, one which throws light on 
some dark points in Revelation. Indeed, it is 
exceedingly interesting to see how science and 
Revelation mutually throw light on each other. 
This invisible is not mind ; for, though it 
may be of an almost infinitely lower order, the 
the plant as really has it as the animal — the 
brute, as the man. It would seem to be of a 
semi-spiritual character, — in man, a kind of 
connecting link between the visible and the 
spiritual. But as the plant has it, and as God 
has not told us what it is, it does not become 
us to speculate. Perhaps, as is the rank of visi- 
ble in creation, so is the rank of the invisible. 
The one is the proper counterpart of the other. 
Truly, we now only "see through a glass 



$2 ■ Resurrection of 

darkly " — we know only in part ; bat when 
that which is perfect is come, then shall we 
know, even as also we are known — " that which 
is in part shall be done away." But we must 
wait for the perfect vision, before we can fully 
know what that invisible is. 

The unseen germ will constitute our bodies 
always the same ; for it changes not in a cen- 
tury — nay, not in ten thousand centuries, and 
it will not change in the resurrection. That is, 
it will not so change, nor be changed, as in the 
least to affect our identity. Therefore, you and 
I will be the same persons after the resurrection, 
that we were before. Our identity will not be 
lost, nor in the least changed. Our bodies will 
be identically the same that they were at death 
— yes, the same they were in infancy. We will 
find in the resurrection, that we are the same 
identical selves that sinned against God ; or 
that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
trusted and loved him as our all in all. 

This unseen something is entirely different 
from the soul and the spirit, for the plant has 



the Redeemed. 53 

it, and it is totally destitute of both soul 
and spirit. Every living thing has it ; yet it 
is, doubtless, as much more exalted in man, an 
he is exalted above the plant, or as he is exalted 
above the lower orders of the animal kingdom. 
We know that amid all the changes the plant 
undergoes, it is still the same individual plant. 
Amid all its mutations, its nature and its charac- 
ter have not changed ; and in the most important 
sense, its body has not changed. During the 
period of its existence, we never once doubt its 
identity. Its natural mutations alter not the 
character of its fruit. Only a power foreign to, 
and superior to itself, can do that. It may etern- 
ally change and change, but it works no change 
in the character of its fruit. Its only tendency 
is to degenerate. An intelligent being can im- 
prove — yes, by budding or grafting, can work 
an entire change in its fruit. Different species 
of plants may be fed on the same food, but in 
their characteristics they do not in the least 
approximate to each other. At the end of years 

or centuries, they are just as different as their 
5* 



§4 Resurrection of 

invisibles were ; and just as different as their 
visibles were, when first brought into existence. 
So all the natural changes of our bodies, work no 
change in their nature-^-no change in our char- 
acter for the better, and no change in our identity. 
We ourselves can work no change for the better 
— God only can. We are wonderful mutabilities, 
but, unaided, are only mutable, morally, for the 
worse. Indeed, without divine assistance, de- 
generacy is the only law of fallen nature. 

In the light of what has been said, it can be 
seen that no external changes change us. We 
are continually changing, and yet remain un- 
changed. In sickness and in health, in infancy 
and in extreme old age, we are still the same. 
However much we may have been maimed and 
marred, we are the same persons. The loss of 
all our members does not in the least affect it. 
After the lapse of half a century, with all its mu- 
tations, no one doubts our identity — no, not 
even the sceptic. In this all-important sense, 
time does not, death does not, and the resur- 
rection will not change us. Hence, that body 



The Redeemed, 55 

that has sinned will be punished, and not some 
other one; and that body which has prayed, 
labored and suffered for Christ will be rewarded, 
and not some other one. 

Again, as in nature everything partakes of 
the character and nature of its parent, — even the 
plant partakes of the nature of the parent plant, 
and it cannot better its nature, — so we partake 
of the corrupt nature of our original parent, 
and of each intermediate parent, and like every- 
thing else, are unable to ohange our nature, or 
better our character. All our trying and trying 
is in vain. Therefore, would we have a change 
for the better, we must look to the Power above 
us — look to Jesus, or remain forever corrupt 
and unchanged. All the changes of time, death, 
and the resurrection will not change our na- 
tures, our characters, nor our identity. 

God only can renew us morally and physi- 
cally. We are perfectly dependent on him for 
every change for the better. If there is an en- 
tire change in our moral natures, he must work 
it. If we would have the glorified change, we 



$6 Resurrection. 

must have the moral change. If God does not 
change us morally, having the nature of the 
first Adam, instead of being glorified, we must 
be destroyed. The volume of Revelation 
promises us no glorious changes in the resur- 
rection, unless God has wrought in us the great 
moral change. 



DIFFICULTIES AND PRACTICAL DUTIES OF LIFE; 

OK, 

THE OBSCURITIES OF THE SCRIPTURES, THE INE- 
QUALITIES AND MYSTERIES OF PROVIDENCE, 
THE INCONSISTENCIES OF PROFES- 
SORS OF RELIGION, ETC. 



SECTION I. 

THE Word of God clearly reveals that 
our understandings are darkened by sin. 
We also see it, and we feel it. All experi- 
ence attests, and our own assures us, that God 
alone can open the eyes of our understandings, 
and can make us to behold wondrous things out 
of his law. Sin has veiled our understandings 
— has so clouded them, that it is easier for us 
to understand any other truth than spiritual. 
Hence, many very intelligent men are ignorant 
of the very elements of religion. They can 
talk very learnedly of the laws of nature, and 



§8 Difficulties and 

of nations ; but they are totally ignorant of the 
way by which the sinner may become righteous, 
be reconciled to, and walk with God. The 
Holy Spirit alone can remove this veil, clear 
away the darkness, enlighten the mind, and 
enable us clearly to behold those things which 
are spiritually discerned. 

There are great, essential, glorious truths, 
which no man can teach us — which no man can 
make us understand, if we are not taught by 
the Holy Spirit. The natural man cannot re- 
ceive nor know them, because they are spiritu- 
ally discerned. (1 Cor. ii. 14.) He may study 
them, but his mind is shrouded in darkness : 
the veil is on his heart. He who would learn 
God's truth, must be taught of God ; and to be 
taught, he must earnestly seek. " If thou 
seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as 
for hid treasures ; then shalt thou under- 
stand the fear of the Lord, and find the know- 
ledge of God." (Prov. ii. 4, 5.) 

Men must feel their ignorance before they 
will apply to the great Fountain of light. They 



Practical Duties. 59 

must be in earnest, feel their need ; and when 
they do feel their need, they will pray ; and 
when they earnestly, and in confidence pray, 
the Holy Spirit will teach them — will pour such 
a flood of light on the precious, blessed, glori- 
ous truths of God, as they would have been 
unable to discover in a lifetime of hard study. 
That which was dark and mysterious, instantly 
becomes plain. We wonder that we could not 
see it before. But we might as well wonder 
why the blind cannot see what we see, and de- 
light in the beauties of nature. When Jesus 
opened the eyes of the blind man, it was no 
trouble for him to see ; and so, when the Spirit 
opens our eyes, it is no trouble for us to see. 
We cannot help but see what before was im- 
possible. 

The tendency of all sin is to cloud the un- 
derstanding, and not only enshroud men in 
darkness, but cause them to hate the light. 
" Men love darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds are evil. For everyone that doeth 
evil hateth the light, neither conieth to the 



60 Difficulties and 

light, lest his deeds should be reproved." (John 
iii. 19, 20.) In proportion as a man loves any 
form of sin, the word of God will not only be 
to him a sealed book, but he will hate it — " will 
not come to the light." Cling to any form 
of sin, and you will be able to find difficulties 
in the Bible, over which you may stumble and 
fall. Cleave to any form of known sin, and 
you may soon become an Infidel. It is the 
highway to Infidelity. Did space permit, 
alarming facts could be related in attestation of 
this. Indulge in known sin, and your condi- 
tion is perilous. The truth is, the great diffi- 
culties lie in our hearts, not in the word of 
God. 

A great difficulty in the way of many 
Christians understanding the truths of the 
Holy Volume, is not only the want of an obe- 
dient, loving heart, but also of child-like simpli- 
city. They do not go to the Bible, as to a book 
of common sense — a book which means what it 
says, and says what it means ; but to a book of 
figures, mysteries, and sublimated spiritualities. 



Practical Duties. 61 

They would throw transcendental mysteries 
around all religion, and around the book which 
contains the only true religion. They can find 
few plainly narrated facts in the Book of God. 

But this Holy Book was written for common 
minds, and they may understand its great all- 
important truths. It is a book of experience, 
rather than of mysteries and transcendental 
philosophy. As an old German minister once 
said to me, " We can only understand the Bible 
as far as we have experienced it." The master 
mind who searches for mysteries, rather than 
experience, will be sure to err ; while the sim- 
ple, obedient child, who does the will of God, 
will know the truth. The Word of God, like 
other books, has figures, mysteries — glorious 
mysteries, which will take eternity to solve ; 
but generally the simple, obvious meaning of a 
passage is the true one. He who is looking for 
figures, flowers, and mysteries, overlooks the 
simple, plain, God-like truth. 

All error acts and re-acts upon the heart, and 
through it upon the life. Therefore, no error 



62 Difficulties and 

can be harmless. Errors in doctrine not only 
pave the way for new errors in doctrine, but 
they lead to errors in practice. The tendency 
of every error is, to make the errorist, in mind, 
heart and life, like the Father of errors. Were 
it not for counteracting truths which he may 
hold, every errorist would become like Satan. 
The errorist grows in error, and error propa- 
gates itself. 

Again, diversity of minds will produce more 
or less diversity of views. We can scarcely 
find two minds who will understand all parts 
of the same book alike. Is it strange that it 
should be so with the Bible? We have no 
right to expect that the watchmen will see eye 
to eye, until they are pre-eminently taught of 
God. Till then, unity of views on all doc- 
trines is out of the question. 

The word of God, like its Author, and like 
all His works, contains truths, which the most 
gigantic mind cannot fathom. The angels may 
desire to look into them, and do look, but they 
cannot fully comprehend them. To Gabriel, 



Practical Duties. 6j 

they, doubtless, pass knowledge. Some of them 
may prove to be the enigmas of eternity — re- 
quiring eternity to solve them. 

Unfulfilled prophecy, in the very nature of 
things, must be hard to be understood. With 
the utmost confidence we may say of the simple 
declarations of God, they shall be literally ful- 
filled ; but the order of events may be a difficulty, 
which we are unable to solve. Doubtless, God 
never designed that all should fully understand 
them until they are fulfilled. Great plainness 
and certainty would stand in the way of their 
fulfilment. The times and the seasons, the 
Father hath put in his own power, not ours. 
(Acts i. 7.) 

After all, the great difficulty in the way of 
men understanding the teachings of the Bible, 
lies in their refusing to obey the truths they do 
know. As w T e act up to the light we have, more 
will be given us; and as we refuse to live 
according to the light we have, what we have 
will be taken from us. " For whosoever hath, 
(that is, useth what he hath), to him shall be 



6 4 Difficulties and 

given, and he shall have more abundance : but 
whosoever hath not (that is, useth not what he 
hath), from him shall be taken away even that 
he hath." (Mat. xiii. 12.) " If any man will 
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of God, or whether I speak of 
myself." (John vii. 17.) If any man will do 
the will of God, the Spirit will teach him more 
truth, and thus will lead him into all truth ; 
but if any man will not do the will of God, in 
great mercy the light is withheld from him. 
Such would abuse the light, not use it, and 
therefore it would only add to their guilt. It 
is a great mercy that the heart that will not 
obey, should be shut up in darkness and blind- 
ness. It is a mercy that God blinds the minds 
of those who wilfully harden their own hearts 
by disobedience. I think we may lay it down 
as a universal truth, as we live up to the light 
we have, God will give us more ; and as we re- 
fuse to obey, we will lose what we have. The 
almost universal disobedience of men is then 
the great reason of their spiritual blindness. 



Practical Duties. 65 

SECTION II. 
THE MYSTERIES OF PROVIDENCE. 

AS there are mysteries in the Word of God, 
so there are mysteries in his providence. 
While in this state of existence, we can only 
expect to see through a glass darkly, and hence 
with reference to many things, we can only say, 
" Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
sight." Bat faith assures us, that they seemed 
good in his sight, because he saw that they were 
really for the best. Ah, nothing could have 
been bettered. However dark, mysterious and 
trying God's providences may be, our hearts 
should ever say, " Thy will be done." " Not 
as I will, but as thou wilt." Sight or no sight 
— light or no light, we may say of everything, 
"It is for the best." 

To superficial observers, the introduction of 
sin into the universe, is an inexplicable mystery. 

Many have had hard thoughts, some of which 
6* E 



66 Difficulties and 

have been uttered, because God permitted our 
mother Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit, 
and to "poison all her race." They would 
throw all the consequences of the fall upon 
God, and regard man as an object of pity rather 
than censure — his falls as necessities of his 
nature. Notwithstanding the greatness, ful- 
ness and freeness of the provisions of mercy 
which he rejects — the blood which he tramples 
under foot — the tender calls of the Spirit, to 
which he does despite — and the proffered help, 
strength and grace which he neglects or dis- 
dains, they would regard it as unjust to con- 
demn him, because he was involuntarily brought 
into a world of sin — a world into which, they 
think, sin has unnecessarily been admitted. 

But was the introduction of sin unnecessary ? 
Is any evil unnecessary ? Is any evil produc- 
tive of evil only ? Does not more good than 
evil spring from its admission? The field is 
wide, the truths glorious, but I must not enter 
it. Let a few facts suffice instead of discussion. 

What would man have been, had sin not 



Practical Duties. 67 

been permitted to enter our world ? He would 
have been holy, happy, good, but a mere 
heavenly babe — a something which would have 
wanted development. Had sin not been ad- 
mitted, there would have been almost nothing 
to call out and develop the man. He would 
have had in him the gem, the diamond of in- 
estimable value, but there would have been 
nothing to cut and polish it — there would 
have been nothing to draw out and develop 
those traits of character, which, in a Moses, a 
Daniel, a John, and a Paul, are so great, glorious 
and God-like. 

If there had been no sin, earth would have 
been well-nigh destitute of trials ; and without 
trials what would man be? Had there been no 
trials, I verily believe neither earth nor the 
heavens would this day have, among all the 
created, one truly great character. There would 
be none, in the many provinced kingdom of 
our Father, to shine as suns and as stars. No 
Gabriel, no Paul, no Luther, no Calvin, no 
Knox, no Wesley. 



68 Difficulties and 

If I have read my Bible aright, trials have 
not been confined to one world, for tempting 
devils have not been confined to one. Every 
intelligent family, in every province of the 
heavens, have experienced, and been developed 
by them. 

One thing is certain, the great characters of 
earth have all been tried ones. Character is 
not a something which is directly created by 
God, but it is developed ; and to be developed, 
there must be something to develop it. Had it 
not been for sin, and the trials consequent upon 
it, what would there have been to refine and 
develop the man ? Ah, many a heart will praise 
God to all eternity for trials, which while on 
earth were well-nigh crushing. Would you 
be made eternally great, shining as suns in the 
kingdom of your Father ? Then " think it not 
strange concerning the fiery trial which is to 
try you, as though some strange thing hap- 
pened unto you : but rejoice, seeing ye are par- 
takers of Christ's sufferings ; that, when his 
glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad with 



Practical Duties. 69 

exceeding joy." (1 Pet. iv. 12, 13.) " Many 
shall be purified and made white and tried." 
(Dan. xii. 10.) But none are purified, none 
are made white without the trial. Do you pray 
to be purified and made white? you virtually 
pray to be tried. Are you refined as the silver, 
and purified as the gold, made fit for the Mas- 
ter's use ? you must pass through intense fires. 
Only the most intense fires will consume the 
dross and purify the gold. 

Had not sin, or at least tempting devils, been 
permitted to enter our world, man would have 
been good, holy and happy, but earth would 
have had no great characters. Man would 
have had to have been created a very different 
being from what he was to have been, truly 
great without the trials which are consequent 
upon the introduction of sin. Had there been 
no sin, in all that constitutes true moral great- 
ness, earth would have been peopled by a race 
of dwarfs. The whole company of the re- 
deemed will have cause to thank God for the 
introduction of sin, and for their sore, sad trials. 



yo Difficulties and 

The Apostle knew the necessity of trials to 
develop the man, and fit him for the throne, 
and therefore he exhorts us to count it all 
joy, when we fall into divers temptations or 
trials. (James, i. 2.) So necessary are trials, and 
so absolutely sure is it, that God will try his 
children, that he authorizes us to regard our- 
selves as bastards and not sons, if we are with- 
out chastisements. (Heb. xii. 8.) Even the 
Son of God, when incarnate, in order to be per- 
fected as a man, must be sorely tried — " made 
perfect through sufferings." (Heb. ii. 10.) No 
one is accounted worthy to reign, or to be a co- 
heir with Christ, who does not suffer with him. 
(Rom. viii. 17; 2 Tim. ii. 12.) 

The Bible, and the whole history of the past 
show us that the holiest, the meekest, the 
purest, the best and the greatest in the sight 
of God, have been those who have been most 
sorely tried. Trials, under God, prepared 
Enoch for translation. Trials developed Moses, 
making him the meekest and greatest man 
on earth, and fit to be a ruler and guide 



Practical Duties. yi 

of Israel. Trials developed David, and fitted 
him for the throne. Even Paul, with all his 
labors, faith and grace, must have a thorn in 
the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, 
and other trials of every kind which would 
have crushed an ordinary man. Take the his- 
tory of the redeemed, and it is a history of trials 
by which God has prepared them for the throne. 
Indeed, the way to that throne is through a vale 
of tears. No inhabitant of an unfallen world 
will reach it. The great occupants of the 
throne will be those who have " come up out 
of great tribulation." But whence could come 
the sad trials of earth, the crushing of hearts, 
and the burdens which can only be cast off on 
God, had it not been for the introduction of sin ? 
I have drunk deeply from earth's bitter cups 
of sorrow — I have passed the most of my days 
on the " shady side " — I have known what it is 
to envy the inanimate and the brute, and to 
wish I had not been ; but with the Book of 
books in my hand, and the assurances which it 
contains, I have also rejoiced that I am one of 



7 2 Difficulties and 

the fallen — a sinner, and a sinner saved by 
grace. I would have been afraid to have had 
anything different from what it has been and is. 
Ah, though I have them, yet I am afraid to 
have a wish. I know that no chastisement is 
joyous, but grievous, but it works the peace- 
able fruits of righteousness to those who are ex- 
ercised thereby. (Heb. xii. 11.) They may well 
nigh crush us, but compared with the weight 
of glory, and eternity, they are light, and but 
for a moment. (2 Cor. iv. 17.) 

It is only the most precious metals that can 
endure the heat of the refiner's fire ; and they, 
instead of being consumed, are only purified. 
The baser metals are not subjected to such 
ordeals, for it would render them perfectly use- 
less, or utterly destroy them. So the great 
moral refiner knows who will stand the ordeal, 
and come out gold purified, and who would be 
consumed by the process, and he treats them 
accordingly. To be fit for the refiner's use, 
every one must go through the fires ; but the 
great refiner always proportions the fires to the 



Practical Duties. yj 

preciousness of the metals. Though he will 
use, aud not cast away as useless the baser 
metals, yet he will not subject them to the 
fires which are necessary to purify gold. But, 
on the other hand, those who can stand no 
trials, or are subjected to none in this life, being 
unfit for the refiner's use in the world to come, 
shall be utterly consumed. That man who has 
few or no trials in this life, instead of comfort- 
ing himself, has cause to tremble, lest he may 
not even be a baser metal, and his end will 
only be "to be burned." We can only see 
a little of the surface, but the " Lord knoweth 
the heart " — what a man is, and he treats every 
one accordingly. 

The trials, or the prosperity of some indi- 
viduals may be permitted, not for their own 
sakes, but because of those who are in some 
way connected with them. The trials of some 
who reject Christ, may be designed by an all- 
wise God, to reach and bless some member of 
the family, some relative or some acquaintance. 
They may not be sent for the man's own sake, 



7^? Difficulties and 

but for others. Or the man's trials may be 
the natural and necessary result of his own 
sins. 

God's children are sometimes greatly pros- 
pered in order that their benefactions may bless 
the world. The Lord saw they would make 
good stewards, and therefore he has committed 
much to their care. He who has been pros- 
pered, and is not beneficent, has very great 
cause to tremble. The evidences are against 
him. 

The entire dealings of Providence may be 
compared to a vast, complicated machine with 
trillions of parts — strange, mysterious and grand 
in its machinery and movements, but every 
motion is right — everything about it is right, 
and in its right place — everything about it is 
necessary to accomplish the benevolent purpose 
of its Maker — everything about it, is perfect. 
However small, insignificant, or apparently ig- 
noble, may be some of its parts, they are all 
absolutely necessary ; and the complicated whole 
accomplishes the grand, noble and beneficent 



Practical Duties. 7j 

purposes of its frauier. AVere the least or the 
most mysterious thing about it wanting, it 
would not be perfect, and it would mar the 
whole. So it is with the grand, glorious, mys- 
terious, but perfect, and perfectly beneficent 
machinery of Providence. Everything is per- 
fect — everything is for the best. The least 
alteration would have marred the whole. Every 
man is in the right place to carry out the great 
purposes of the benevolent God. Everything 
and every event will prove to be for the very 
best good of the universe. 

"We cannot see through the whole — we can- 
not begin to comprehend it, any more than we 
can infinity, but eternity will make it all plain. 
Eternity will solve every mystery, and show 
that not one event, not one thing but was over- 
ruled for the best — that in everything God 
made the wisest possible choice of agents, instru- 
ments, events, times and seasons. As well 
might we expect the meanest insect to fully 
comprehend all our ways and purposes, as for 
us to expect to comprehend all the mighty, 



7 6 DlFFICUL TIES AND 

mysterious and glorious dealings of the all- 
wise and infinite God. As well we might ex- 
pect by our unaided strength to compress the 
ocean into a drop, or the finite to comprehend 
infinity, as for us to expect to comprehend 
all the wonders of Providence; for there we 
everywhere behold the impress of infinity. But 
faith realizes that all is right, and revelation 
responds, " what thou knowest not now, thou 
shalt know hereafter." Even we can see enough 
to cause us to rejoice that the Lord reigns. 

In consequence of the introduction of sin, 
God has made such manifestations of himself — 
of his glorious attributes to all worlds, as he, 
doubtless, would not and could not, if there had 
been no sin. Hence, we hear the Apostle say- 
ing, (Eph. iii. 10.), " To the intent that now 
unto the principalities and powers in heavenly 
places might be known, by the church, the mani- 
fold wisdom of God." It will be observed that 
the word places is not in the original, neither do 
I believe it is the word which ought to be sup- 
plied. It not only accords with other portions 



Practical Duties. 77 

of the Word, but it makes better sense if we 

supply the word worlds. Here, and elsewhere 

in the Holy Book, we learn that by the church, 

(literally through or by means of the church), that 

is by means of what he has done for the church in 

redeeming and saving her, God has made known 

to all heavenly worlds his manifold wisdom. 

There is no doubt but the infinite love of God in 

giving his Son, and all the wonders of Geth- 

semane and Calvary — the cross and the tomb, 

have sounded out to the most distant provinces 

of Jehovah's empire. They have been heralded 

and telegraphed throughout his entire realm. 

It is emphatically the manifestation of the 

great God, and our Saviour. It is such as could 

not have been made to unfallen worlds. Well 

might John say, " In this was manifested the 

love of God towards us, because he sent his 

only begotten Son into the world that we 

might live through him. Herein is love, not 

that we loved God, but that he loved us, and 

sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." 

(1 John iv. 9 10.) 
7* 



7 8 Difficulties and 

In view of a great many passages of the 
Word of God, I feel perfectly free in saying, 
the universe would not have known what a God 
they have, had it not been for the admission of 
sin. "The love of Christ, which passeth 
knowledge," would not have been known. 
Had Christ not died, there would have 
been nothing which could so perfectly have 
manifested the infinite love, mercy, goodness, 
and excellence of our God — nothing which was 
so perfectly adapted to draw all hearts to the 
throne of God, and bind them forever there — 
nothing so perfectly adapted to put a stop to 
the falling of worlds. Desperate, indeed, is the 
wickedness of that heart that can withstand the 
drawings of that infinite love. 

The Bible, in various places, presents the 
God-man, Jesus, as the keystone of the arch of 
the universe. All worlds depend on him. All 
worlds stand together with and by him. "With 
the Bible in my hands, I have no hesitancy in 
saying, that had redemption failed, creation 
would have failed, — not merely our world, but 



Practical Duties. 



79 



all worlds, would have been in ruins. All 
worlds had an intense interest in the cross. 
I wonder not that all holy hearts can so heartily 
sing the praises of the Lamb that was slain — that 
the heavens have such rapturous anthems of 
praise to the Crucified. 



8o Difficulties and 



SECTION III. 

THE INCONSISTENCIES OF PEOFESSOES OF 
EELIGION. 

THE Word of God assures us, that he is 
the ruler of all worlds — that he manages 
the affairs of nations, states and individuals 
just right — that the hairs of our head are all 
numbered — that a sparrow cannot fall to the 
ground without our Father's notice — that " as 
a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
them that fear him," — and that " in all their af- 
fliction he is afflicted." It also assures us that 
the greatest provisions, and the most precious 
promises are given, therefore our greatest sin is 
not to place unlimited and unwavering confi- 
dence in him. Not only is it the greatest sin, 
but it is the source of all sins, and the cause of 
all our inconsistencies. It is the sin of sins — 
the great eclipsing sin; and its guilt is in 
proportion to our intelligence. 



Practical Duties. 8i 

In proportion as we have faith in God, we 
will be active, consistent Christians, doing our 
whole duty. He who lacks faith in God, can 
never be a consistent Christian. This evil in 
the heart will be certain to manifest itself in the 
life. It may not be in open and glaring trans- 
gression, but in some thing or other ; — in some 
way there will be seen a lack, or something 
that does not become the gospel of Christ. 

Does a man feel like Cain — "Am I my 
brother's keeper?" It is because, like Cain, he 
lacks faith in God. If a man is a good and 
faithful steward, it is because he has faith in 
God. He who has faith in God, will be faith- 
ful to him, and he who is faithful to God, will 
be faithful to man. Unbelief is the parent of 
selfishness, faith of benevolence. Selfishness 
is diametrically opposed to Christianity, and 
perfectly inconsistent with it. 

Where there is no faith there is no love. 
Love is out of the question. Where there is no 
love, there can be no sincere, hearty obedience. 
Our love and our obedience will always be in 



82 Difficulties and 

proportion to our faith. The obedience of the 
life — the only obedience that is acceptable to 
God — flows from the love of the heart. 

In proportion to our faith in God will be our 
love to him ; and in proportion to our love to 
him, will be our love to man. He who loves 
God supremely cannot live to himself, any more 
than God can live to himself. The cannot is a 
moral one. His heart going out toward God, 
must also go out toward his fellow men. There- 
fore the apostle says, " If a man say, I love 
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." 
"Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his 
brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels 
of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love 
of God in him?" 

Love will always be active, and will always 
produce good fruit. Love never says, " Depart 
in peace, be ye warmed and be ye filled," and 
does not give them anything. That faith that 
does not produce good works is dead, and the 
soul which is relying on such faith, is lost. It 
is true, we are saved by faith alone, but a living 



Practical Duties. 83 

faith will — yes, must work. Works are the 
evidence of faith's life. Works are the fruit of 
faith, and not the root. " Faith works by 
love." It works because it loves. 

All true obedience flows from love, and all 
true love from confidence in the object beloved. 
The above remarks are true in natural as well 
as in spiritual things. It is true in the family 
of man, as well as in the family of God. 

If we love God, we will obey him — obey 
him, because we love to obey him. If we love 
him, we will obey the last command of our 
Saviour, either in person, or by aiding others 
to preach Christ. It was love that nerved 
Paul to do and suffer all he did, in order that 
he might preach Christ. It was not the fear of 
punishment, nor the hope of reward, but merely 
love. Hence he says, " For the love of Christ 
constraineth us." 

Love will prompt us to further every cause 
of God and humanity, as far as we can recog- 
nize them as such. There is no cause so dear 
to us, as the cause of those whom we love. If 



84 Difficulties and 

our love to God is supreme, his cause will lie 
nearest to our hearts ; and next to that, the 
cause of humanity, for it will be as dear to us 
as our own. " For none of us liveth to him- 
self." (Rom. xiv. 7.) He who liveth to himself 
is not Chist-like. Christ was always going about 
doing good. He was always seeking the inte- 
rests of others — not his own. His love made 
self-denials, sacrifices and crosses, easy. Love 
knows no burden — knows no task. 

In proportion as we have the spirit of Christ, 
we will feel that " it is more blessed to give 
than to receive." (Acts xx. 35.) He who never 
aids the cause of God, has not the spirit of 
Christ ; and " if any man have not the spirit of 
Christ, he is none of his." (Rom. viii. 9.) A 
mean, niggardly, miserly, selfish spirit, that 
gets all it can, and keeps all it can, bears no 
likeness to Christ. 

One reason why there are so many and such 
deplorable inconsistencies among the professed 
followers of Christ is, because there is so little 
of his spirit; and this arises from a lack of 



Practical Duties. 



85 



faith ; and one great cause of the lack of faith 
is the neglect of the Word of God and prayer. 
Neglect your Bibles and your closets, and your 
hearts and lives will be wrong — yes, you will 
be all wrong. We may, yes, will decline in 
grace, but cannot grow, while we neglect the 
means. It is the man who makes the Word of 
God a light to his feet, and a lamp to his path, 
that sees and knows where he is going, and 
what he is doing. To his knowledge of, and 
delight in God's word, the Psalmist ascribes his 
hatred of every false and evil way. (Ps. cxix. 
101, 104, 128.) By a great law of nature, the 
constant reader and lover of the Bible must 
become like its Author ; and all experience 
shows that such is the fact. Inconsistent 
Christians are not great Bible readers, nor 
Bible lovers. To do anything right, we must 
have a time for it. If we do not have our 
fixed times for Bible reading, we will fre- 
quently neglect it. He who has not his daily 
fixed time, may expect to let days pass without 
8 



86 Difficulties and 

reading it. We can never succeed in that for 
which we have not a fixed time. 

Equally important with Bible reading, is 
prayer. The prayerless are graceless. To be 
consistent Christians, we must have a time and 
a place for our devotions. We must have our 
closet of some kind, where we may talk with 
God, and tell him our hearts. Both the time 
and the place are necessary. If we have not 
a fixed time, that holy duty will be sure to be 
neglected; and when performed, will gene- 
rally be heartless. If we have not a place, it 
will not likely be devotion. We should at all 
times, and in all places, have our hearts rising 
to God. We should be continually whispering 
our feelings into his ear. But in addition to 
ejaculatory prayer, we must retire where we 
will literally be alone with God ; and this must 
be more than once every day. In our closet we 
must speak aloud, as the Psalmist did, use our 
voices, if we would be free from wandering 
thoughts. It is considered to be impossible to 
be free from them, if we do not use our voices 






Practical Duties. 



87 



in our closets. Because of not using the voice, 
the closet has often been, not a "sweet hour of 
prayer/' — not a place of devotion. In order to 
use the voice, a retired place is a necessity. 

A frequented closet, and a read Bible, are es- 
sential means of grace. Let them be neglected, 
and your hearts and lives will be wrong. Let 
them be neglected, and you may expect to live 
an inconsistent life. If your heart is right, 
your life will be right ; for as is the heart, so 
is the life. You cannot keep your life right, 
unless your heart is kept right. To expect the 
life to be any better than the heart, is to expect 
an impossibility. If we would be consistent 
and happy Christians, attention to all the 
means of grace is very important. But these 
are essential : they cannot be neglected, with- 
out the heart and life suffering. 

Reader, if your life is the index of your 
heart, what must your heart be? Answer it 
to your conscience ; for as is your heart, so 
must be the decision of your Judge. As is your 
heart, so necessarily and mercifully must be 



88 Difficulties and 

your eternal state. The state of the heart is 
essential to happiness or misery. If your heart 
is wrong, no world, place, or society, can make 
you happy. Not even heaven could make you 
happy. If your heart is right, you have the 
elements of heaven within you, and nothing 
external can make you miserable. Not even 
the bottomless pit. Is your heart right ? No, 
not unless there has been a radical change 
wrought in it by the Holy Spirit — not unless 
you have been " born again." If that change 
has been wrought in you, your life will attest 
its reality. What then is your life? 

Judging that the following letter, written by 
the Rev. W. C. Davis, may be instrumental in 
removing some heart difficulties, I will subjoin 
it to what I have written : 

July 10th, 1795. 
Deah Sister : — There is nothing of more impor- 
tance than for us to be prepared for heaven. No- 
thing but the righteousness of Christ can entitle us 
to one of the blessings of the covenant of grace. 
This is a sentiment generally believed; but alas! 



Practical Duties. 



89 



how often docs our attachment to the covenant of 
works contradict our faith, bear the sway in our 
hearts and sentiments, and place our own feelings 
and graces bestowed on us in place of Christ ; and 
either make our comfort in religion as fickle as our 
frames, or leave us to despond and fear lest we have 
no Saviour, even when he is carrying on his own 
work in our hearts. It is truly astonishing to think 
how shamefully little dependence is placed on Christ, 
even by his own dear people. I have sometimes 
taken a view of myself from the first moment I have 
any reason to believe I felt religion. I spent twelve 
years and a half in difficulties, toils, and wretched 
self-righteousness, firmly believing salvation to be 
through grace, and yet seemed to forget that Jesus 
alone could save a sinner. I often made application 
to him with tears, and begged his assistance over and 
over, his faithful Word in my hand, pointing me to 
trust my all to him ; but my poor self-righteous 
soul, wanting something in me to entitle me to him, 
kept constantly poring on my own feelings and exer- 
cises, and knew not how to trust a Saviour's promise. 
I went on comfortless, always seeking, and seeming- 
ly never able to find. Trusting to nothing but my 
own feelings, I thought that he that felt so and so 
should be saved, but I forgot always that he that 
8* 



gO DlFFICUL TIES AND 

believeth should be saved. Thus I became a prey to 
every remaining lust that was in me. For my life I 
could not keep from sinning, and every sin destroyed 
my peace. All my dependence was in a holy heart ; 
but, alas, I found I was carnal, sold under sin. (Rom. 
vii. 14, compare vii. 5, 8.) This made me often cry, 
"O wretched man that I am!" But still I never 
went so far as to thank God for Christ's sake. (Rom. 
vii. 23, 24, compare viii. 1, 2, 9, 10, 12.) How have 
I sincerely pitied many a dear child of God going on 
thus, always engaged in his own feelings, but never 
trusting to him who alone is able to save. 

We cry up evidences of religion. Would to God 
we had more evidences than we have. But it is 
base, it is on a legal score, to trust to one or a thou- 
sand of the best evidences that God ever put into a 
sinner's heart, or refuse to come to Christ when we 
cannot see those evidences. How often do we sit 
down and despond when we feel corruption, or when 
overtaken with a fault ; and the true reason is, we 
are unwilling to come to Christ without some holy 
principle to recommend us. Whenever we think our- 
selves ugly, we think Christ will have nothing to do 
with us, and stay back till we pray, confess, repent, 
and live awhile in a better way ; then we imagine 
we can come forward, and if we happen to fall into 



Practical Duties. pi 

sin 011 the way, we turn right back and fall on our 
faces, and weep and mourn, till we wipe away our 
crime ; then we come to Christ, depending on no- 
thing for our acceptance with him but our repentance, 
tears, and reformation ; and while we continue in 
a pretty lively frame, we can venture almost to call 
Jesus our Saviour ; but as soon as we get into dark- 
ness and coldness, or into some sin, we are all de- 
spondence and doubt again. (Rom. ix. 31 ; x. 3, and 
ref.) 

This is the wretched race I ran for twelve years, 
depending all on my own works and God's work in 
me, and not on himself, who had promised to do all 
things for me. I dragged heavily, wading through 
darkness, temptations and tears, and no wonder, 
when I had no dependence on anything but what I 
had in hand ; and often I thought I had nothing, 
and I looked not to Christ for support in future. 

"When I feel a good evidence, I have not confidence 
in Christ. I am trusting to that evidence ; and when 
I have confidence no longer, then I feel that my 
confidence is the only pillar of my hope, and I am 
still recommending myself to him, and trusting to 
this recommendation, and not to Jesus. Oh, the 
wickedness of my heart ! What little faith is given to 
God's word, while all our hope is in our own exer- 
cises. 



92 Difficulties and 

Thus far, twelve 3'ears' experience taught me, the 
last two of which I spent in bitter lamentations 
and distress, in which time I studied the nature of 
faith for life and death ; and the more I thought on, 
the less I knew about it, and I am persuaded that if 
any man buy his knowledge of faith as dear as I did, 
he will thank God for it when he gets it. 

After two years' anxiety, preaching every Sabbath, 
awful apprehensions of eternity, conscious that I 
knew nothing of the Gospel, almost in despair, 
searching the Scriptures to know what I was, and 
what would become of me, it pleased God to bring me 
out of an abyss of darkness, into the blaze of an 
assurance. I always thought that by evidences I 
was to know whether I was to be saved or not, and 
took my Bible, read over John's first Epistle, com- 
pared my heart and life, and compared again and 
again, and Scripture where marks are given, and all 
books, and my own knowledge of what Christians 
ought to feel. I left nothing untried but one thing, 
and that was the main thing. At length I read the 
Scripture, " He that believeth shall not be ashamed." 
My poor burdened soul met the joyful tidings with 
pleasure and surprise. I never before, at least with 
any degree of confidence, saw Christ offered in the 
Gospel. I took him at his word, gave up myself to 



Practical Duties. gj 

him, and placed my hopes alone in him. I clearly 
saw that I had all along been trusting to my own 
feelings, duties, repentance, etc., but I cast them all 
behind my back, and counted them as dung, and 
came to a precious, faithful Saviour, with nothing 
but sin. I believe him to be faithful, and therefore 
I committed all into his hands, and looked to his 
faithful word for the salvation of my soul. All this 
was done in five minutes. I felt easy, happy, and 
humble ; ashamed of my former ways, and thankful 
to God for his most gracious deliverance. The next 
Sabbath I preached that sermon at M — d, on faith, 
which I hope you will remember as long as you live. 
Faith in Christ has ever since, and ever shall be, my 
only hold. Jesus is a faithful Saviour ; I love his 
name, I love his cross, I love his word, and my 
whole hope is in him, and I know I shall never be 
ashamed, and I know this because he has said so. 
Now, my sister, if any ask me the reason of my 
hope, I answer, because I have believed on the Lord 
Jesus. Moreover, I say he is able, willing, true, 
faithful ; he has said, promised, signed, sealed with 
his blood, and sworn by himself. (Heb. vi. 17-20.) 
Thus I glory in the cross of Christ. If I am asked 
what Christ has done for me ; he has fulfilled the 
law, died, rose, and makes intercession for me. And 



94 Difficulties and Duties. 



I am a poor, imperfect, lost sinner, in myself — that 
I have a wicked, wretched, and deceitful, hard, un- 
believing heart in me, and that I have need of his 
pardoning blood and sanctifying Spirit. He makes 
me hate myself more and more, and long for deliver- 
ance from all sin and corruption, and enables me to 
look to him for all I need, and I hope to enjoy. May 
God help my dear sister to believe. W. C. D. 



A JUST GOD. 



SECTION I. 
THE ATTRIBUTE OF EIGHT-DOING. 

JUSTICE is one of the most glorious attri- 
butes of the Holy One. No one needs to 
fear it, unless he fears right. It is the terror 
only of wrong-doers. Without justice, perfec- 
tion could not be enstamped on any one of his 
moral attributes. It gives perfection and glory 
to all his attributes, and to his whole character. 
It makes him the Being whom we can trust, 
and who is worthy of the confidence of every 
being in the universe. "Without justice, he 
would not be worthy of, and we could not trust 
him. Justice sits as umpire in all his actions. 
Hence, throughout his vast realm, he does no- 
thing except what is right. 

Its primary meaning is right. The original 



g6 A Just God. 

word, dikaios, is sometimes translated just, and 
sometimes right. Indeed, they are convertible 
terms — mean the same thing. The same is 
true of justice and righteousness. To say that 
God is just, is to say he always does that 
which is perfectly right, in all worlds, at all 
times, and between and to all individuals. 
Neither time nor eternity can adduce a single 
instance in which he has done that which was 
not just or right. Time nor eternity never will 
be able to adduce such a case. What attribute 
then ought to be dearer to us than the justice 
of God? What attribute can be dearer to the 
holy universe — what dearer to the Holy God, 
than his justice? There is none. Could God 
cease to be just, no greater evil could befall the 
universe. 

But when we look at all the attributes of the 
Holy One, we see perfection enstamped on 
every one of them ; and no one of them would 
be perfect without all the rest. The lack of 
either of them, would mar the perfection of 
God. It is all his perfect, infinitely glorious 



A Just God. 97 

attributes blended together that constitute him 
the perfect God whom we adore. Were either 
of them wanting, he would not be a perfect 
God, and would be unworthy of perfect confi- 
dence. 

To the justice of God, there is frequently a 
judicial idea attached. At the very mention 
of it, many think only of punishment. They 
seem to see in this attribute only that which 
requires God to punish men. They can only 
see in it the vindictive. To them there is no 
glory in the justice of God. There is nothing 
in it that is calculated to enrapture the soul, 
and draw out the heart in love to the God of 
justice. 

His justice is not to them one of his lovely 
attributes. Their expressions in prayer often 
show this. Justice appears to them as some- 
thing that is only to be feared — not loved and 
admired. There is nothing in it that is cal- 
culated to call forth from their inmost souls 
their heartfelt alleluias. But they regard it 

as the terrible in God — something that is only 
9 G 



p8 A Just God. 

to be endured, but never loved. It is a some- 
thing which, in some respects, they know not 
how to reconcile with the other attributes of 
God. It is truly the dark shading in the 
divine character. It is not God's " darling at- 
tribute." 

It has seemed as if some theologians have 
endeavored to make the justice of God appear 
as dark as possible. They have well nigh ab- 
stracted from it the dominant idea, Right, 
and they have only presented some of the fear- 
ful consequences of doing right. In their pre- 
sentation of the justice of God, you can see little 
except God the avenger — God the executioner 
— yes, often the vindictive executioner. We 
may try to love such an attribute in God, 
but it seems too much like trying to love the 
cruel executioner, who glories in shedding 
blood. Their presentation of other attributes 
may have won hearts to God, but this repelled. 
The intensified feeling in the Catholic, has en- 
gendered Mario! atry. 

As has been said, Right is the primary mean- 



A Just God. gg 

ing of the word. Justice is that attribute of the 
Holy One which leads him invariably to do right, 
and nothing but what is perfectly right. It is 

THE ATTRIBUTE OF RIGHT-DOING. 

If the good of the universe, and mercy to the 
individual, demand that he should be sent to 
hell, God sends him there. He does it, not 
because he is vindictive, but because it is right. 
He does it not with the feelings of the hardened 
executioner, who feels not, and cares not, but 
with the feelings with which a kind, tender, 
affectionate, loving father would expel from his 
house an irreclaimable, desperate, malicious, 
profligate son, who is all the time trying to 
ruin the rest of his family. He does it because 
the good of the rest of his large family impera- 
tively demands it. All the feelings of a father's 
heart are called forth. It is the most painful, 
heart-rending act of his life ; but right demands 
that it should be done — yes, mercy, and every 
other consideration demand it, for the son will 
not be reclaimed. Prayers, entreaties, and 
tears are in vain. All means and efforts that 



ioo A Just God. 

can be used, have been, and are unavailing. 
Hope expires. As the son is seeking to ruin 
the rest of the family — to make them as bad as 
himself — and his influence is evil, and only 
evil, and that continually, as a last resort, a 
dire necessity, he expels him. Though it well 
nigh breaks his heart, he expels him. 

So it is with our heavenly Father. Hence 
we hear him saying, " How shall I give thee 
up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, 
Israel ? how shall I make thee as Admah ? 
how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? Mine heart 
is turned within me, my repentings are kindled 
together." (Hos. xi. 8.) How strong, tender, 
affectionate, heartbroken is the language. 
Could it be stronger, more feeling, more paren- 
tal? It is the exact language of a parent's 
heart. You see in it all the feelings of a 
parent. His whole soul is moved within him ; 
but the good of others demands, the good of 
the universe and right demand that he should 
give them up. He has done for them all that 
he wisely can. He has borne with them as 



A Just God. ioi 

long as the good of the universe will permit. 
The best thing he can now do with them, is to 
give them over to destruction. 

What was true of Ephraim and of Israel, is 
true of every lost soul, for God is "no respecter 
of persons," and he is " the same yesterday, to- 
day, and forever." He who wept over Jerusa- 
lem, has the same feeling for every dying sinner 
who will not be saved ; but who has " trodden 
underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted 
the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was 
sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done 
despite unto the Spirit of grace," (Heb. x. 29,) 
and whose continual influence is ruinous to 
souls. Ah, the God-despising, Christ-rejecting, 
Holy Ghost-grieving sinner compels God to 
banish him from heaven. As a free agent he 
does it. It would be neither right nor merciful 
"to do otherwise. 

We can see a little of the depth and tender- 
ness of God's feeling, when we hear him saying, 
"As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 

pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that 
9* 



102 A Just God. 

the wicked turn from his way and live: turn 
ye, turn ye, from your evil ways ; for why will 
ye die, O house of Israel ?"■ (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) 
Again, we are told that God is " not willing 
that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance." (2 Pet. iii. 9.) Oh, who 
can doubt his willingness, his feelings, his 
love ? In the heart of my heavenly Father is 
the last place in the universe where I would 
expect to find the vindictive, the unfeeling and 
the unmerciful. Tell me the educated, the 
highly refined, most tender and loving mother 
is vindictive toward her child, but say it not 
of my Father in heaven. 

Ah, there are a great many things said of 
our Father that are not in the Bible, nor ac- 
cording to it. Hence, many writers, who truly 
love God, do not honor him. And who of us 
can plead innocence ? Alas, we are too igno- 
rant of our Bibles. We have read other theolo- 
gies more than God's. We are tied to stereo- 
typed thoughts, views and systems. 

The true presentation of our Father's charac- 



A Just God. ioj 

ter, presents him as glorious — every attribute 
glorious. Every trait of his character is lovely 
— " altogether lovely." There is nothing in 
him or about him that is repulsive, except to 
the unholy. Those who love sin, hate God; 
and yet even they, as far as they understand 
his character, must admit that it is perfect. 
8* 



104 Just God. 



SECTION II. 

DIFFICULTIES. 

I ADMIT there is a great deal in the Provi- 
dence of God — a great deal in his dealings 
with nations and with individuals, which I do 
not understand, nor pretend to understand. 
They are too deep for me. I must enter into 
that within the veil — enter the world of light — 
before I expect to understand them. But most 
fully do I believe, that could we see all the 
whys and loherefores which operate in the divine 
mind, — could we look through all causes to 
their ultimate effects, — we would see that infinite 
wisdom and mercy have done, and ever will do, 
everything just right — perfectly right. Could 
we see through all things to their final conse- 
quences, — could we at once see through all 
time and through all eternity, — the causes in 
time operating through time, and through eter- 



A Just God. 105 

nity, we would see that it would not have been 
mercy to the universe, nor benevolence in God, 
had anything been different from what it has 
been and is. 

Right has been, and will be done to all 
worlds. God has secured, and will, in every- 
thing, secure the highest good of the universe. 
Sinners may debar him from seeking and 
securing their highest good as individuals ; but 
he has, does, and ever will, secure the highest 
good of the universe. 

Many represent God as vindictive in the 
punishment he inflicts on the finally impeni- 
tent. I acknowledge there are descriptions of 
hell that are most horrible — descriptions which 
would seem to indicate that God must be vin- 
dictive — that there can be but little mercy in 
his heart. Some have seemed to feel that they 
had a licence to say what they pleased about 
hell, provided it was horrible. They have 
appeared to think that their pictures of hell 
could not be overwrought. I believe I may in 
truth say, there is scarcely anything horrible, 



io6 A Just God. 

but has been said of hell. It is, perhaps, not 
strange that some minds have become Univer- 
salists. It might also be a query which the 
most dishonors God. 

As hell is as really the creation of God as 
heaven and earth, unjust descriptions of it is 
doing injustice to its Creator. Hence we should 
be just as fearful of giving unscriptural views 
of hell, as we would be of heaven or earth. I 
would be just as much afraid of making hell 
one whit worse than it is, as I would in the 
least to detract from the glories of heaven. 

But some have seemed to feel that they were 
at perfect liberty to let their fancies run wild 
in their descriptions of the world of woe. I 
would not even dare to repeat descriptions of 
it, which some of our very best men have given. 
It is strange that good, faithful Bible men, 
have not felt that they were under obligations 
to abide by the Scriptural descriptions of that 
place. God seems to be too literal for them. 
He does not say enough about it — does not 
make it bad enough — does not give enough 



A Just God. 



ioy 



play to the imagination to suit them. Hence 
they give the loose reins to their fancy, and 
represent the holy and merciful One as delight- 
ing in things which would horrify the hardened 
sinner. Indeed, a collection of the various 
orthodox descriptions of hell, would be a 
strange compilation. 

Many of those who make such descriptions 
of hell, turn round and tell us the Bible de- 
scriptions of that world are all figures — that 
really there is no such place. Very recently, 
when I wished to know of a very orthodox 
minister, if the bottomless pit is a fact or a 
figure, he would give me no answer. Convers- 
ing with an intelligent elder, he expressed the 
opinion that no one believed there is such a 
place — that the Scriptural descriptions of the 
lake of fire are only figures. Thus, to my cer- 
tain knowledge, individuals have been made 
Universal ists by those who profess to be ortho- 
dox. If there is no such place, what is the dif- 
ference whether the figures are Universalist or 
orthodox ones ? If the sinner can get clear of 



108 A Just God. 

the place, it is the most he wishes. Pie cares 
little for, and fears little, a punishment which 
is only figurative — a punishment which is not 
in a place, is nowhere. 

Now I most fully believe that hell — that the 
bottomless pit— is all the Word of God describes 
it to be, and nothing more or less. It is really 
what God says it is — not a whit better, not a 
whit worse than he says it is. It is really a 
bottomless pit. It is really a lake of fire, burn- 
ing with brimstone. It is enough for me 
that God has said it ; but science has confirmed 
what God has taught. Science as really teaches 
the existence of such a place, as does the Bible. 
To deny the existence of such a place, to me, 
would be to deny Revelation and science — turn 
traitor to both. 

It is not a mere figure of speech, but is as 
really a place as the Atlantic Ocean is a place. 
The beast and the false prophet, whoever they 
are, or whatever, will certainly be men — not 
devils ; and they are to go alive into the lake of 
fire. (Rev. xix. 20.) Examine the original, and 



A Just God. 



iog 



you will find it is not a, but the lake of fire. 
They cannot be cast alive, body, flesh and 
bones, into that which is not a place. The 
resurrected wicked, with their bodies, are to be 
cast into the lake of fire. (Rev. xx. 15.) Real 
bodies cannot be cast into that which is not a 
real place. There are also many other positive 
passages of God's Word which describe it as a 
place. A man must be tutored awhile in the 
school of Origen, before he can read his Bible, 
and think of hell, except as a place. 

It is also as really fire as any fire is fire. Its 
fire is no more figurative than its place. There 
is really no figure nor mystery about it. The 
punishment which God executes on the sinner 
is just what the Bible describes. It is nothing 
more, and it is nothing less. It is the penalty 
of the law. It is the second death. 

In that death God does not inflict one un- 
necessary pang. He merely executes the penal- 
ty of his own righteous, merciful law. There 
are no unnecessary ingredients cast into the sin- 
ner's cup of woe. God has no vindictive feel- 
10 



no A Just God. 

ings to gratify. He merely executes the penal- 
ty of his own broken law, because it is right — 
because the good of the universe demands it. 
There is also more mercy in it to the sinner, 
than there would be in sending him to heaven 
unchanged and unholy. The sinner has so 
lived, his state of heart is such, that the most 
merciful thing God can do with him, is to send 
him to hell. Really, it is a great mercy for 
God to send the impenitent to hell. 

The most fearful ingredients in the world of 
woe, are those which the sinner inflicts on him- 
self, and his fellow companions in misery. He 
fills up for himself a cup of unmixed woe, and 
then drinks it to the very dregs. He himself, 
and he only, makes hell to be hell indeed. He 
himself gives to hell all the fearful. 

There appears to be an obvious necessity for 
understanding the worm which dieth not, figu- 
ratively. It is considered to be the guilty con- 
science. Hence one of our poets says, 

"Conscience, the neverdying worm, 
With torture gnaws the heart." 



A Just God. 



hi 



I have no doubt the worm which dieth not, 
will be incomparably worse than the fire which 
is not quenched — as much worse as mental ago- 
ny is worse than physical. Sad, remorseful 
death-beds show what mental agony is. God 
inflicts on the sinner in hell the physical, but 
he inflicts on himself the mental suffering. 
Each sin will bite again. That is the meaning 
of the word remorse — bite again. It comes from 
re, again, and mordere or morsum, to bite — bite 
again. The truly fearful ingredient in hell 
will be, for all a man's sins to be biting him 
again, and biting him again — devouring him. 
Better for a man to be devoured by some wild, 
ravenous beast ; for it will do it but once ; but 
sin will bite again, and bite again. Ah, sin is 
worse than hell, incomparably worse than hell. 
It is vastly more to be feared than hell. 

We cannot give an overwrought picture of 
sin. In our descriptions of it, we cannot de- 
scribe it as worse than it is. I doubt if we can 
make sin worse than it is, or slander the devil. 
We can fall far short of describing their despe- 



ii2 A Just God. 

rate character. We can give a false description 
of sin, but we cannot too much magnify its evil. 
And certainly Satan is so low, vile, mean, and 
wicked, that he cannot be slandered. 

Almost everything that is evil, awful, ter- 
rible, and fearful in hell, sin makes it so. 
What sin does, the sinner does, for he volunta- 
rily and wilfully sins. He sins, notwithstand- 
ing all the warnings of God the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, and of angels and men. But 
is it not right, if men will sin, if they will turn 
a deaf ear to all the warnings of God, that he 
should permit them to have the consequences of 
their sins? He who obstinately holds on to 
sin, has in it a worse punishment than God in- 
flicts on the sinner. Sin is the scorpion that 
will torment the soul. It seems to me that one 
unpardoned sin on the conscience is worse than 
ten thousand hells, if there were so many. 

Truly the great salvation is to be saved from 
sin, not from hell. Oh, hell is scarcely worth 
talking about — it is scarcely worth fearing ; it 
is sin that is the monster evil. It is sin that 



A Just God. iij 

makes hell to be hell indeed. Hence, to be 
saved from sin, is a salvation indeed. It is a 
glorious salvation. It is one that is worthy of 
God, and of the acceptance of every man. 
When God speaks of saving men, it is saving 
them from their sins — not from hell. But, I 
ask again, is it not right, when men are ob- 
stinately determined to hold on to sin, for God 
to permit them to have it ? He would have to 
have made them machines, in order to have it 
otherwise. The free agent can dash the cup of 
salvation from him, when it is tendered to him 
by the hand of mercy, and maniac-like swallow 
the cup of death. Ah, for a man to sin, know- 
ing what he is doing, is to act the desperado 
or the maniac. There is nothing so fearful, 
nothing so madman-like, as to sin. 

Men may have hard thoughts of God for 
sending the sinner to hell. I have heard them, 
and who has not ? But every sinner will be 
his own tormentor. 

""We give our souls the wounds they feel." 

Why then should he not have hard thoughts of 
10* H 



ii4 <d Just God. 

himself? Despite of all God has said and 
done, he will drink the poisonous gall that will 
torment him in eternity. 

The Judge of all the earth does right. He 
lets the obstinate, determined Christ-rejecter, 
salvation-despiser, Holy Ghost-griever eat of 
the fruit of his own ways, and be filled with his 
own devices. He lets him reap what he would 
sow. God would have snatched the cup of 
death from his mouth, even after his lips had 
tasted the poison, but he impiously dashes the 
hand of mercy from him, and with contempt 
turns his back upon him who would have been 
his Saviour. Mercy would have saved him, 
but mercy is despised, abused, set at nought. 
Hell is dreadful, but the sinner will not let 
God save him. The bleeding, weeping, plead- 
ing Jesus cannot persuade him not to go there. 
All the eloquence of the Bible and of the pul- 
pit cannot persuade him to turn to God and 
live. Hell is dreadful, but the sinner makes it 
so— not God. 

There are a great many other points which 



A Just God. 115 

it would be pleasant to dwell upon at length, 
but I cannot now do more than advert to them. 

Are Christians afflicted, plagued, and chas- 
tened in this life ? It is the very best God can 
do for them. They are but a part of the " all 
things" which are working together for their 
good. (Horn. viii. 28.) I know that now it is not 
joyous to them, but grievous, yet afterwards it 
is the means of working out for them the 
peaceable fruits of righteousness. (Heb. xii. 11.) 
It is a means of refining and preparing them 
for the heavenly kingdom. The hotter the 
fires, the purer the gold which has been tried 
in them. Indeed, it is only the most precious 
metals that can endure the fiercest fires. Such 
only are subjected to such fiery trials. So it is 
only God's most precious ones that are subjected 
to the sorest trials of earth. Thus he purifies 
them, and fits them for the highest positions in 
his kingdom. 

God's children, to be fitted for heaven, and to 
be great in the kingdom of our Father, must 
pass through the trials of earth. The great 



n6 A Just God. 

characters of earth and of heaven are tried 
ones. Man must have been created a different 
being from what he is, to have become great 
without trials. Character is not created, it is 
developed. You may say the man is not 
created, he is developed. It is the babe that is 
created. Man untried could never have been 
more than a heavenly babe. Indeed I have 
sometimes thought that even Gabriel, without 
trials, would have been nothing more. 

While I fear and tremble, I bless God that 
he has permitted the introduction of sin, and 
the trials consequent upon it. Yet few can say 
that their flesh shrinks more from it than mine. 

Through all the trials and temptations of 
this world, is the royal and glorious way to 
heavenly and eternal greatness. Hence Peter 
could say, " Beloved, think it not strange con- 
cerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as 
though some strange thing happened unto you : 
but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of 
Christ's sufferings ; that, when his glory shall be 
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding 



A Just God. iij 

joy." (1 Pet. iv. 12, 13.) James says, " My 
brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into 
divers temptations [trials] j knowing this, that 
the trying of your faith worketh patience." 
(Jas. i. 2, 3.) Paul says, "For whom the 
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every 
son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chasten- 
ing, God dealeth with you as with sons ; for 
what son is he whom the Father chasteneth 
not?" (Heb. xii. 6, 7.) 

Men chasten and correct their own sons, 
whom they would save from folly and sin. 
They act kindly, wisely, mercifully, and right- 
eously in so doing. Our heavenly Father, in 
love, mercy, goodness and wisdom, does the 
same by his children; and he does right in do- 
ing so. 

God often causes the wrath of men and devils 
to praise him, by securing the spiritual and 
eternal good of his afflicted ones. Satan may 
bind a daughter of Abraham eighteen years, 
but God acts mercifully and righteously in per- 
mitting it. He only permits him to do so for 



u8 A Just God. 

her own good; and when the best time shall 
have arrived, that daughter shall be loosed. 
God will deliver her from her infirmity in 
spite of Satan. A self-confident disciple may 
be permitted to be sifted by the enemy as 
wheat, and fall, in order that he may be hum- 
bled, learn his weakness, and where his strength 
lies. 

But when Satan has done the worst God 
permits him to do, he can only further the 
highest interests of the holy. He can execute 
his own purposes of malice, but really he fur- 
thers God's own purposes of love and mercy. 
"All things work together for good to those 
who love God." There are no exceptions. 
The glorious Word does not say some things, 
but all things. To the eye of sight, all things 
may seem to be against them, but really "no 
evil can befall them." Like Jacob, when his 
faith was weak, they may exclaim, " All these 
things are against me," when every one of those 
things are working together for their good. 

Communities and nations may be visited 



A Just God. up 

with plagues and pestilence, but it is all right. 
It is all for the best. No injustice is done. 
God secures a greater good than he would other- 
wise. We may not see the how in time, but it 
is enough for faith that God does ; and eternity 
will be long enough to show us the how. Time 
frequently solves these difficulties, but they are 
generally left for eternity. 

Wars may lay waste large portions of the 
earth, and millions may be ushered unpre- 
pared into the world of spirits. The evil may 
seem to be almost infinitely great, and there 
may seem to be no compensating good ; but 
there is, whether we ever see it or not. God 
does right, and he does that which is best by 
permitting it. The iniquity of those millions 
may have become ripe, and, therefore, it is bet- 
ter that the sickle should be put in, and the 
vintage be gathered and cast into the wine- 
press of the wrath of God. 

But how many nations have been left in all 
the darkness of heathenism for more than forty 
centuries ? Why has it been so ? Why have 



120 A Just Gob. 

so many generations passed down to the world 
of spirits unwarned? Is it justice? Is it 
right ? I acknowledge this is the darkest chap- 
ter in all the book of God's providence ; yet I 
am persuaded eternity will throw light on this 
chapter — yes, eternity will make it all plain, 
all light. But, for the present, we can only 
say, " Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in 
thy sight." We know that it seemed good, be- 
cause it was really best. But how? We know 
not, and shall not attempt to penetrate the veil, 
and reveal what God has not revealed. Faith 
says, it is best, it is right, and "what thou 
knowest not now, thou shalt know here- 
after." 

As God has invariably done right in all the 
past, so he will in all the future. As the Judge 
of all the earth, he will mete out exact justice to 
every one. Right will be done to every one in 
the judgment. No one has any cause to fear 
the judgment, unless he fears right, and is un- 
willing right should be done. The holy, the 
blood-washed have nothing to fear, and every- 



A Just God. 121 

thing to expect from their just Judge. The 
unholy — the Christ-rejecters — have everything 
to fear ; for in vain will they expect God to do 
injustice. The sinner only has cause to be 
alarmed, because of his rejection of Christ, and 
not because he is a sinner — not because God is 
just ; for whosoever will, may come to him and 
find life. The reward of his hands will be 
given him — nothing more — nothing less. What 
he would sow, that he shall reap. 

He who has taken Jesus for his wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, redemption, his all 
in all, has nothing to fear from justice. He 
can with all his heart rejoice that God is just. 
Being in Christ, he has nothing to fear. He 
wants justice, for justice will give him all 
Christ has purchased by his death. 

But the man who rejects Christ, has every- 
thing to fear, and nothing to expect from jus- 
tice. He has everything to fear, only because 
he rejects Christ. He has nothing to fear be- 
cause he is a great sinner, for Christ is a great 

Saviour, and died for great sinners. But re- 
11 



122 



A Just G 



on. 



ject Christ, and you do it at the peril of your 
sins devouring you. Christ offers to take 
away all your sins — to cleanse you from all sin. 
Will you let him ? 



CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN. 



SECTION I. 
NOT CAUSED BY FEAR OF DEATH. 

WHAT caused it? What was the cup 
which he so earnestly prayed might 
pass from him? Did it pass from him ? 

According to Mr. Barnes, it was the " bitter 
sufferings " and the " approaching trials." 
Christ prayed, " If it be possible ;" that is, if 
the world can be redeemed ; if it be consistent 
with justice and the maintenance of Divine au- 
thority, that men should be saved without this 
extremity of sorrow, let it be done. There is 
no doubt that, if it had been possible, it would 
have been done. Then, according to Mr. 
Barnes, Christ must have prayed for that which 
was impossible to be done ! What would he 

think, if one of us were to pray for that 

123 



124 Christ s Agony. 

which we knew was impossible ? Would it be 
right? 

Ripley, the Baptist Commentator, says of 
the cup, " Here it refers to the calamities which 
were soon to be endured by the Saviour." 
Kitto says, "It could, therefore, be no other 
than the scene of suffering upon which he was 
about to enter. It was the death which his 
Father had appointed for him — the death of 
the cross — with all the attending circumstances 
which aggravated its horror ; that scene of woe, 
which began with his arrest in the garden and 
was consummated by his death on Calvary." 

I once heard a learned Princeton profes- 
sor and doctor preach, and he thought it was 
the dreadful temptations of the devil, tempting 
him to abandon the work which he had under- 
taken, and not endure the sufferings which lay 
before him ; that the cup which he wished to 
pass from him was the cup of suffering. Can it 
be, that our blessed Saviour so far yielded to 
the temptation of the enemy as to pray to be 
delivered from the work which he had volun- 



Christ's Agony. 125 

tarily and most heartily undertaken ? To have 
done so, it strikes me, would not have been 
resisting the devil, but criminally yielding to 
him, or perhaps more properly, parleying with 
him. Indeed, it seems to me, to be very de- 
rogatory to the character of him who was 
" holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from 
sinners/' and who never, in the least, yielded 
to the suggestions of that vile adversary. 

But temptation, or no temptation, devil or 
no devil, did our Lord pray to be delivered 
from the cross and the sufferings which lay 
before him ? Was the cup the " bitter suffer- 
ings," and the "approaching trials?" I most 
positively answer, No ! Perfectly knowing all 
that lay before him — all he must endure — he 
most heartily undertook the great work of 
man's redemption. He had told his disciples 
of his painful and shameful death, and his re- 
surrection on the third day. Could it be that 
he would pray that his own words should be 
falsified — that he might prove himself a liar ? 
He knew that the testimony of God's Word re- 



120 Christ's A g ony. 

specting his own sufferings, and the promises 
made to man in view of the Atonement. Could 
it be, that he prayed that all the prophecies and 
promises should fail — that God's word should 
be falsified — that God would disappoint the 
faith of all who trusted in him — that those who 
had fallen asleep trusting in the atoning sacri- 
fice of Christ, should perish ? 

From various passages of the Word of God, 
I believe that not merely one world, but all 
worlds — not merely one set of creatures, but all 
creatures were interested in the Atonement. 
Let that fail, and all would have failed — not 
one world would have remained loyal to the 
God and King of the whole universe — not 
one would have continued to trust him. All 
confidence would have been destroyed, and, 
therefore, the universe. That he might escape 
a few hours of the most intense sufferings, 
could Jesus have put up a prayer, which, if it 
had been answered, would have dashed the 
hope of all worlds and involved the ruin of the 
universe ? Yes, I might ask, would he have 



Christ's Agony. 127 

prayed that the universe might be made a hell ? 
for that would certainly have been the result 
of the answer to such a prayer ; and his prayers 
were always answered. (John vi. 40.) 

Jesus, and his Atonement, are the great key- 
stone of the arch of the universe • remove that, 
and all would have been in ruins. Let God's 
word be falsified — let it fail, and he would 
cease to be God. The universe would have no 
God — no Ruler — no Head. It is enough to 
make one shudder, even to contemplate all the 
dire consequences which must have resulted if 
such a prayer had been answered. Could he, 
then, have prayed that his cup of sufferings — 
that his most bitter trials should have passed 
from him ? Believe it, if you can ! 



128 



Christ s Agony. 



SECTION II. 

IT WAS THE HOUR AND POWER OF 
DARKNESS. 

BUT what caused his agony ? What called 
forth his most importunate prayers? It 
was the " hour and power of darkness." (Luke 
xxii. 53.) It was not only the hour for his 
human, but his angelic enemies. What was the 
cup ? It was that hour, and the fearful temp- 
tations of that hour. From these Jesus most 
fervently prayed to be delivered. What the 
temptations of the adversary were, I know not. 
But I do know, there is nothing so repulsive, 
so odious to the holy soul, sin excepted, as the 
temptations of that malignant, low, mean, vile 
fiend. What, then, must they have been to 
the perfectly holy Jesus? How perfectly re- 
pulsive — how horrible ! He " was in all points 



Christ s Agony. 129 

tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (He- 
brews iv. 15, ii. 18.) If not in the garden, 
when did our Saviour resist "unto blood, 
striving against sin?" (Hebrews xii. 3,4.) On 
that fearful night, we are told, that " being in 
an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his 
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling 
down to the ground." (Luke xxii. 44.) In 
the whole record of his history, we are told of 
no other hour of the power of darkness, when 
he resisted unto blood, striving against sin. If 
there had been any other, certainly so important 
a fact must have been recorded. 

Not only are we told that he was tempted in 
all points as we are, but it is expressly said, 
that this was the hour and " power of dark- 
ness." When Satan left him, after his tempta- 
tions in the wilderness, it is said it was for a 
season. (Luke iv. 13.) It was only for a 
season, and not forever. From such a record, 
we would expect that he must have returned, 
and there would be a record of that return. 
In the garden, is the only recorded place and 
time of his return. 



ijo Christ s Agony. 

From the history of God's people, we may 
learn that many of the more pious and holy 
have been most fearfully tried by the Adver- 
sary. They have had to withstand shocks 
which would have utterly crushed ordinary 
Christians. But God does not suffer any holy, 
confiding souls to be tempted above what they 
are able to bear. (1 Cor. x. 13.) At times 
Satan may seem to get the victory over them, 
but such triumphs are only seeming — they are 
not real ; and in the end, prove to be defeats. 
God's greatest servants are made great by the 
great victories which they gain. Great, holy 
men, have great temptations. They have been a 
means, under God, of making them great. They 
have been in the hottest of the battle — they 
have wrestled with principalities, powers, and 
the rulers of the darkness of this world. 

To be prepared for a great work, the most 
holy must pass through very great temptations 
— "fiery trials." Behold Peter, sifted as 
wheat, and apparently dashed to the ground, 
lost, undone, his reputation as a Christian and 



Christ's Agony. ijt 

his usefulness forever destroyed ; but that was 
only seeming. Satan only sifted out the chaff. 
Through the grace of our God, Peter rose from 
his sad, humiliating fall, a greater, meeker, 
holier, more God-dependent man than he ever 
had been, or than he ever would have been, if 
he had not been sifted. The world may thank 
God, and Peter may thank him to all eternity 
for that sifting. That sifting was to him a 
self-crucifying process. 

Perhaps no one, in modern times, has done 
more for God than Martin Luther ; and per- 
haps few, if any, have been more frequently or 
more sorely tempted than he. We are told of 
him in " The Life of Martin Luther, gathered 
from his own Writings by M. Michelet," " Fre- 
quently I could not pray; the Devil would 
drive me out of the room." "The Devil often 
presses me so hard in dispute, that I break out 
in a sweat. I am kept conscious of constant 
animosity." "This morning when I awoke, 
the Devil said to me, ' Thou art a sinner.' I 
answered, ' Tell me something new, demon — I 



ij2 Christ's Agony. 

knew that before.' " " At times, he has cast 
me into such despair, that I have not known 
whether I was dead or alive. At times, he has 
cast me into such despair, that I have not 
known whether there was a God, and have ut- 
terly doubted our dear Lord." "The Devil 
sets the law, sin, and death before my eyes, 
compels me to ponder on this trinity, and 
makes use of it to torment me." " The temp- 
tation of the flesh is bitter ; the remedy is at 
hand. But God shields us from the tempta- 
tions which involve eternity ! Tried by them, 
one knows not whether God be the Devil, or 
the Devil God." 

So I might give many more quotations in 
his own words, which show us how that great 
man was tried. He even wrote a document 
giving a kind of history of the obstinate war 
which Satan waged upon him during his 
whole life. Dr. Spencer has given us a letter 
from a minister, which gives a graphic account 
of the most fearful temptations of the Enemy, 
which he himself had to endure. I will give a 



Christ's Agony. ijj 

quotation which will show a little, and only a 
little, of the fiery trial through which he had 
to pass. Having told us of the black, awful, 
and protracted temptations, which well nigh 
robbed him of his reason, and drove him to 
despair, he says : 

" No pen can describe the horrors I endured. 
They were of every sort. I can only give a 
few hints of them." (i Blasphemous thoughts, 
not lawful to utter even here; temptations 
which may not be named — things that would 
freeze your blood — yea, things which made me 
feel that hell itself could not be worse — would 
be darted through my mind, without volition 
or control ! My poor soul was their sport. 
She had no power over them, not an item. She 
was tossed about like a leaf in the storm, help- 
less, hopeless. At times things would flash 
over my mind like the flashes of the pit, as I 
thought ; for I could not account for them in 
any other way. It was as if Satan spoke to 
me, to jeer at me, and taunt me, and triumph 

over me in his malignity : — where is your God 
12 



134 Christ *s Agony. 

now f what do you think of prayer now f 
These ideas would come with such suddenness 
and vividness, so involuntarily, so surprising to 
myself, that I could not believe them the pro- 
duction of my own mind ; it must be that Satan 
was permitted to buffet me, and expend all his 
malice upon me, giving me a foretaste of hell." 

" In my agony I used to roll upon the floor 
of my study hour after hour, in despair, think- 
ing it a sin, a shame, an impossibility for me to 
make another sermon." At last a little light 
broke in on his mind, and he caught hold of 
one certainty. " Then," says he, " came a con- 
test within me — a conflict like the clash between 
thousands of opposing sabres ! I felt the power 
of my idea, if I could but hold it ; but the as- 
saults that were made upon it came like the 
shock of battle ! One thought after another 
seemed to heave over my soul — one temptation 
after another dashed upon me, and all I could 
do was to hold on to my rock. God reigns." 

Suppose he who was perfectly holy, and who 
was in all points tempted as we are, was 



Christ's Agony. ij$ 

tempted as was this minister — yes, suppose the 
power of the temptations was augmented in 
proportion to the superior, the spotless holiness 
of Jesus — that the waves of hell rolled over 
him as they never did over the soul of a mere 
mortal — that blasphemous, filthy, awful, hellish 
thoughts were darted through his mind, far ex- 
ceeding anything that any mere man has ever had 
to endure, and is it any wonder that his perfectly 
pure and holy soul, tasting those bitter draughts 
of hell, should intensely loathe them, and cry 
to be delivered from such a cup ? — a cup of 
hell's sewerage ? Would it be natural for him 
to drink such a cup ? Do you think it strange 
that his whole soul loathed it ; and that he so 
earnestly cried to be delivered from it ? — that 
he was unwilling to endure it one moment lon- 
ger than it was his Father's will ? Ah, it was 
a cup more bitter than the cross — yes, more 
loathsome, more abhorrent to his holy soul than 
anything this side of hell. Those "flashes of 
the pit"— those "foretastes of hell "—of hell's 
pollutions, must have been perfectly awful to 



ij6 Christ's Agony. 

his pure, unsullied soul. If the temptation of 
Satan caused Luther to break out in a sweat, is 
it any wonder that he who stood in the sinner's 
place, and in the sinner's place had to endure 
all the shafts of Satanic malice, should sweat 
great drops of blood falling down to the 
ground ? I can only think of his conflicts with 
the arch enemy as the sorest part of all that he 
endured for us — as the most unendurable and 
loathsome to his holy soul. 

Paul doubtless refers to the hour of tempta- 
tion and agony in the garden, in Heb. v. 7; 
speaking of Christ "in the days of his flesh, 
when he offered up prayers and supplications, 
with strong crying and tears, unto him who 
was able to save him from death, and was heard 
in that he feared" The marginal reference here 
points us to the hour and the agony in the 
garden. Two things seem to be evident from 
this passage. First, his prayer was answered ; 
" He was heard in that he feared." And 
second, if he had not been heard, his humanity 
would have been crushed. His soul would not 



Christ's Agony. 13J 

merely have been sorrowful even unto death, but 
death itself must have been the necessary con- 
sequence, if the temptation had been long con- 
tinued. His strong crying was to one " who 
was able to save him from death ;" and as he 
" was heard in that he feared," he must have 
been saved from death. But he was not saved 
from death on the cross, therefore that could 
not have been what he feared. 

The minister, from whose letter I have 
quoted, was well nigh crushed; and perhaps, a 
little longer, and he would have been alto- 
gether. Had there been no angels strengthen- 
ing him, or no supporting grace, the temptation 
he did endure would, perhaps, have overcome 
him. So the temptations which Christ had to en- 
dure may have been actually crushing — entire- 
ly too much for mere unsupported humanity to 
sustain. Ah, we know very little of the most 
desperate, foul, malignant character of Satan — 
of his ineffable subtlety, vileness, and meanness. 
God grant we may never know it experiment- 
ally. No wonder our blessed, compassionate 
12* 



ijS Christ s Agony. 

Saviour has taught us to pray, "Deliver us 
from the evil one." 

If the cup had been the cross, with all its 
fearful concomitants, was Jesus heard in that 
he feared? It appears to me, he could not 
have been ; for soon after he was led forth to 
endure it with all its terrors. Also the fearful- 
ness of the crucifixion was terribly augmented 
by the hidings of his Father's face. But we 
have no reason to believe that after that fearful 
conflict in the garden, he had to endure any 
more Satanic trials. 

One of the ways in which his prayer in the 
garden was heard, was, " an angel appeared 
and strengthened him." In consequence of the 
angelic aid, his nature was sustained, and the 
victory obtained — the terrible enemy was put 
to flight. Thus may unseen angels often sus- 
tain us, when passing through fearful conflicts 
with that terrible adversary. Bunyan has very 
beautifully informed us that, while the Devil 
casts water on the fire, in order to quench the 
work of grace begun in the heart, it only caused 



Christ's Agony. ijp 

the fire to burn higher and hotter. Why ? 
Because there was an unseen one continually 
casting oil into the fire. Were there not grace 
given and unseen supports, often humanity 
would sink. 

God did not suffer the humanity of his Son 
to sink under those unparalleled temptations. 
An angel appeared to strengthen him. As it is 
said, " There appeared an angel," that holy 
messenger must have been seen. That was, 
doubtless, a new thing on the earth, for an 
angel to appear for such a purpose. For them 
to come for that purpose, I have no doubt is a 
constant occurence. Their ministrations, when 
we are wrestling with principalities, powers, 
and the rulers of the darkness of this world, are 
to us unseen, unknown, and perhaps unthought 
of. God does not permit his people, as he did 
not his Son, to be tempted above what they are 
able to bear ; but, doubtless, were it not for 
those unseen supports and strengthen ers, they 
would very often be insupportable. 

If the Son of God. during the hour and 



140 Chris rs Ag ony. 

power of darkness, needed an angel to streng- 
then him, how much more must mere fallen 
men need it — men whose hearts are but mere 
tinder boxes for Satan ? Ah, it is an easy mat- 
ter for Satan to tempt us, and unsupported and 
unaided, we are perfectly helpless. In every 
respect, he is too mighty for us. 

How strange that for our sakes — that he 
might be our merciful, faithful and sympathiz- 
ing High Priest, the Son of God should be 
subjected to such fierce assaults of hell — that he 
had to endure temptations, perhaps far above 
what any mere mortal ever has endured. But 
everything connected with the incarnation is 
strange — surpassingly wonderful. He who 
could be tempted by an unholy fallen angel, 
could also be strengthened by a holy one. 
Why all this ? For our sakes he was, " for a 
little while, made lower than the angels. " 
Yes, he was made lower than they, in order 
that we may be made higher than they. He 
took our place, that we might take his place — 
be i-aised to his throne. 



THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF TIME. 



TIME is not something that belongs to earth 
alone, but it is common to all worlds, 
whether that world has inhabitants or not. All 
who believe the Bible must admit that before 
there was a vegetable or animal on earth, there 
was time. Whether the Genesic days were only 
twenty-four hours or thousands of years, there 
must have been time. While the whole earth 
was covered with water, there was a first and a 
second day. Days are time. What is true of 
one world is true of all, whether they have a 
living being on them or not. How long time 
has existed on them, depends on how long it is 
since they were created. 

Could we imagine that this earth shall " pass 
away as the baseless fabric of a vision," and all 

141 



1 42 Beginning and 

terrestrial things cease to be, still time would 
roll on— time would not end. Indeed the an- 
nihilation of all worlds, except that which is the 
throne of God, would not annihilate time. 

It may be proper to say, time on earth began 
at the commencement of the first Mosaic day ; 
or at all events it was the commencement of 
terrestrial measured time, but to say that time 
then had a beginning is not correct. I believe 
we may positively assert, no passage of Scrip- 
ture speaks of the beginning of time. If I am 
not correct, where is the chapter and verse f 

Rev. x. 6, has often been quoted to prove 
that time will end ; yet I am confident the origi- 
nal of that verse does not teach any such doc- 
trine. The literal rendering of the Greek of 
the Eeceived Text is, " Time shall not be yet." 
It is evident from the whole sentence, even in 
the Common Translation, that it cannot refer to 
the end of time. The remainder of the sen- 
tence says, " But in the days of the voice of the 
seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, 
the mystery of God should be finished, as he 



End of Time. 143 

hath declared to his servants the prophets." It 
then refers to the events connected with the 
sounding of the seventh angel. 

There is no school of commentators but be- 
lieves the sounding of the seventh, as well as 
of the other six angels, is before the commence- 
ment of the millennium, or the thousand years. 
Suppose then, that all material things are to be 
annihilated, it cannot take place till at least one 
thousand years after the sounding of the seventh 
trumpet. Therefore, according to the common 
idea, time must end at least one thousand years 
before it can possibly end. 

But instead of the mighty angel proclaiming 
the end of time, he informs us the time for the 
fulfilment of these things shall not be yet. Or 
another rendering of it is, " There shall not be 
another elironos" — another time. A chronos 
or time, according to very many commentators, 
is three hundred and sixty years. 

The connection shows that the commonly re- 
ceived view cannot be correct ; and if we take a 
Eeference Bible, in vain do we search for a pas- 



1^4 Beginning and 

sage that speaks of the end of time. It would 
then be presumable that it can have no end. 

But can the reader find passages which speak 
of the continuance of time beyond the sounding 
of the seventh angel ? The thousand years — 
the whole millennium is a continuance of time 
beyond the sounding of that angel. Besides, 
every Greek scholar knows, or ought to know, 
that the common expression for eternity is ages, 
and ages of ages. If ages are not expressive of 
time, and of its eternal continuance, what can 
be ? How can you have ages, and ages of ages, 
without time ? Indeed many expressions show 
that eternity itself is only an eternal continu- 
ance of time. The passages which speak of 
the continuance of time, are very numerous; 
and there is nothing ambiguous about them. 

As far as the past and the future of time is 
concerned, it is divided into ages — " aiones." 
At the close of the sixth age man was created. 
The seventh is now passing, and will end with 
the millennium. The eighth will begin at 
that period, when God says, "Behold, I make 



End of Time. 145 

(Rev. xxi. 5,) when he will 
recommence the work of creation, and perfect 
that which was left imperfect at the close of the 
sixth day. Of the endless succession of ages, 
which will lie beyond the eighth, I believe God 
has told us little. 

In the computation of earthly time, its com- 
mencement was with the first day ; and it will 
have no end. Of time in the Heaven, we can 
neither speak of its beginning nor end. We 
cannot say it had a beginning, and we are sure 
it will have no end. Time is the measurement 
of eternity. The ages are its grand divisions. 
K 



HADES 



PREFACE. 



MORE than twenty years ago, the state of 
the dead was to me a subject of consider- 
able inquiry. Not only was the original fre- 
quently consulted, but also various versions of 
the Bible, and all the lexicons I could obtain. 
Having satisfied my own mind as to what is 
the truth upon this great inquiry, it in great 
measure ceased to be a subject of thought. To 
me it was a settled question. I had no doubts 
upon it. But recently my opinion was sought, 
and the following pages are the result. 

If we are to enter Hades, what is it ? Does 
the common view promise us too much or too 
little ? The warning has come, almost from 
that state, "Do not expect too much." The 
request had been made of a holy woman as she 
was departing in the triumphs of faith, that, 
just as she was leaving the body, she should 



4 Preface. 

speak, if she could. The above was her admo- 
nition, coming from the parting veil. So the 
souls under the altar admonish us, " Do not ex- 
pect too much." The expectations of all the 
holy, as God has recorded them, admonish us, 
"Do not expect too much." Do not make 
too much of death. You ought to expect some- 
thing, but not too much glory. 

But how is it with the state and the world 
beyond the resurrection ? May we expect too 
much? Can we too much magnify its glories ? 
The testimony of the Book of God most posi- 
tively cries No. The united testimony of 
the Church of Christ in all ages re-echoes No. 
The eternal beyond will be infinitely glorious. 
Beyond the resurrection, there will be no dis- 
appointments to the holy. Perhaps I had bet- 
ter say, they will be most glorious disappoint- 
ments. Also, the testimony of God, of his 
Church, and of the solemn monitor in every 
breast, assures us that the Christ-rejecter cannot 
fear too much that which lies in that beyond. 



Hades. 



SECTION I. 

TTADES has long been the subject of eon- 
J ~ L troversy — what it is, and where it is. Is 
it a world, a place, a state, a — what? The 
oldest book in the world, Job, refers to it — to 
being hidden in sheol (hades) ; and writers in all 
ages have spoken of it : so that we can no more 
doubt its existence than we can doubt any other 
truth of the Bible. But still, what is it ? 

Josephus says of it, "Now, as to hades, 
wherein the souls of the righteous and the 
unrighteous are detained, it is not necessary to 
speak of it. Hades is a place in the world 
not regularly finished ; a subterraneous region, 
wherein the light of this world does not shine ; 
from which circumstance, that in this region 

5 



6 Hades. 

the light does not shine, it cannot be but there 
must be in it perpetual darkness. This region 
is allotted as a place of custody for souls, in 
which angels are appointed as guardians to 
them, who distribute to them temporary punish- 
ments, agreeable to every one's behavior and 
manners. In this region there is a place set 
apart, as a lake of unquenchable fire, whereinto 
we suppose no one hath hitherto been cast, but 
it is prepared for a day afore determined by 
God, in which one righteous sentence shall 
deservedly be passed upon all men ; when the 
unjust and those who have been disobedient to 
God, and have given honor to such idols as 
have been the vain operations of the hands of 
men as to God himself, shall be adjudged to 
this everlasting punishment as having been 
the causes of defilement; while the just shall 
obtain an incorruptible and never-fading king- 
dom. These are now indeed confined in hades, 
but not in the same place wherein the unjust 
are confined." 

Somewhat similar to the views of Josephus 



Ha des. 7 

are those advanced by various pagan writers. 
They were, doubtless, handed down by tradi- 
tion from the patriarchs, but marred by human 
errors; even more marred than are those of 
Josephus. According to the heathen writers, 
hades has its Elysium of blessedness for the 
righteous, and its Tartarus in which the wicked 
are tormented. 

Rev. James M. Macdonald, D.D., of Prince- 
ton, New Jersey, says, " To the fact that these 
patriarchs died it is added that they were 
gathered to their people, which is not to be 
regarded as a repetition of the same fact by 
another merely pleonastic expression. The 
language implies that there was a place, or 
receptacle of departed souls, where their pious 
ancestors were gathered before them. Jacob 
expected (Gen. xxxvii. 35) to go to his son 
Joseph, of whose place of burial he was igno- 
rant; or rather whose body he believed had 
been torn in pieces by wild beasts. In respect 
to the separate existence of the soul in another 
state, the doctrine of the ancient Hebrews was 



8 Hades. 

far in advance of that of the Egyptians, who 
believed that unless the body was embalmed, 
and deceived the rites of sepulture, the soul 
would be subject to transmigration from one 
body to another. But Jacob, although he had 
reason to believe that the body of his favorite 
son had been torn in pieces, expected to meet 
his spirit in another world. The prophets 
Isaiah (xiv. 15 sq.) and Ezekiel (xxxii. 17 sq.), 
at a later period, describe those whose bodies 
had been cast out unburied as joining the spirits 
of the dead in another world. The former 
prophet (v. 18 sq.) speaks of the king of Baby- 
lon, whose body was not buried but cast out 
among the corpses of the slain. It seems mar- 
velous indeed how it ever came to be questioned 
that the ancients believed in the doctrine of a 
world of departed spirits. This was the world 
in which Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were 
gathered to their people. This was the world 
from which David did not expect the spirit of 
his departed child to return, but whither he 
expected in due time to go to it (2 Sam. xii. 



Ha des. y 

23). If sheol does not mean the grave in. Is. 
xiv. 11, and elsewhere in the prophets, but a 
place where souls after death exist separate from 
their bodies, then we have a warrant for sup- 
posing that it has the same import in Gen. 
xliii. 38 ; xliv. 29, 31 ; especially when taken 
in connection with Gen. xxxvii. 35." 

My inquiry will not be, whether there is a 
locality connected with it, nor whether there 
will be probation, nor any other question not 
revealed in the Word of God : but, is there a 
state between death and the resurrection ? If 
there is, it must necessarily be with man, inter- 
mediate and separate. I believe there is ; and 
that state is in the Old Testament termed sheol, 
and in the New, hades. 

If there are worlds whose inhabitants are 
fallen, and for whom no form of atonement has 
been made, and upon whom the death penalty 
has been executed, they can have no resurrec- 
tion ; therefore, though they are in the hadean or 
separate state, yet to them, it is not interme- 
diate, but final. The separate state can only be 



io Hades. 

termed intermediate to such intelligent beings 
as will have a resurrection. Man will have a 
resurrection, therefore to him it is intermediate. 
No atonement has been made for Satan, and 
he can have no resurrection; therefore, the 
hadean or separate state is to him the final 
state. Though it is positively asserted that 
he is reduced to that state, yet there is not the 
least intimation in the Bible of a resurrection 
for him. 

With many, the mere mention of a separate 
state, or hades, reminds them of purgatory. 
They can think of nothing else that can be a 
state, except the final state. They have swung 
to the opposite extreme from Rome. They 
appear to be unable to separate an intermediate 
state from some particular locality, from some 
" under-ground world "or purgatorial place ; 
and yet many of them do not believe that hell is 
a locality, and perhaps, have some doubts about 
heaven. They are disposed to reverse the order 
of things, and contrary to the Bible, conceive 
if there is such a state, it must be a place ; 



Hades. ii 

and if there is such a place, it must be purga- 
tory, while hell must only be a state. The 
descriptions which God gives of it they take to 
be figures, and only figures descriptive of the 
horrors of that state. 

We do not doubt that the dead of Adam's 
race, and of any other intelligent race, may 
have a place, or places, which is to them home 
— what Solomon calls man's " long home ;" but 
it is not the locality that makes hades. The 
dead, doubtless, have their home where they 
are gathered to their fathers ; but they are not 
confined there any more than the angels are 
confined to their home. They do not cease to 
be in the hadean state when they leave their 
home and pass to distant worlds. Change of 
place does not affect our state now, neither will 
it after death. Suppose sin and death have 
entered Mars, as suggested by Dr. Thomas 
Dick and believed by others, the dead of that 
world, wherever their home may be, are as 
really in the hadean state as are the dead of 
our race ; and if no form of atonement has been 



12 Ha d e s. 

made for them they can have no resurrection, 
therefore hades must be to them a separate and 
final state, but not intermediate. 

So, could we suppose that sin and death 
have entered many millions or trillions of 
worlds, and their dead have trillions of locali- 
ties, they are all alike in the hadean or sepa- 
rate state. I do not say intermediate, for it 
cannot be intermediate unless they are to have 
a resurrection. A spirit as it passes from 
world to world, though it leaves its home, does 
not leave its state. It is as really confined to 
hades, as if it was confined to one locality. 
Change of world does not cause change of 
state; or, when the departed may locally be 
many millions of miles distant from any world, 
they do not lose their state. I believe the Bible 
affords positive evidence that Satan passes to 
other worlds; that he is confined to no one 
world ; and if so, why may not other spirits ? 
Why may not spirits of the Adamic race ? 
Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration was as 
really in that state, and as happy in it, as when 



Ha des. ij 

he was before the throne of God. So also was 
Samuel when he appeared to Saul. 

I do not believe there is the least shadow of 
evidence in the whole Word of God, that the 
departed are confined to any particular locality, 
nor to any particular world, any more than the 
angels or Satan are, or than the resurrected 
will be. As has been said, they doubtless have 
their home, but they are no more confined to it 
than angels are to theirs. Where that home is, 
is uncertain. They may essentially be present 
with the Lord, when at their home, or they 
may electroidally, or in some other way, be 
always present with Him. Facts give us some 
strange hints of possibilities in this way — that 
in a super-spiritual way, the holy dead, wher- 
ever they locally may be, are present with the 
Lord. 

The angel that appeared to John on the Isle 

of Patmos, was undoubtedly one of the departed 

prophets (Rev. xix. 10 ; xxii. 8, 9). He was 

neither confined to locality, nor to world. It 

may be a common occurrence for the departed 
14 



izf. Ha d e s. 

to minister to the living. It has frequently 
been the case, that as individuals were depart- 
ing this life, the vail was so far rent, or perhaps 
it may be more proper to say, they were in 
such an electroid state, that they could see what 
men ordinarily could not. The dying have 
often said that they saw angels ministering to 
them. Their ears have been ravished by sweet, 
unearthly strains of music. I would be sorry 
to doubt them, for angels carried Lazarus to 
Abraham's bosom, and they may carry others. 
The dying Stephen saw what those around him 
could not. Why may not the dying often see 
what those who are in health and strength 
cannot ? 

When Anna Van Den Hove was led forth to 
martyrdom, she cried out, that like Stephen, 
she saw the heavens opened, and the angels of 
God stooping down to conduct her far away 
from the power of the evil one. Very many 
have read the touching exclamation of the 
dying child who, just as the red rays of the 
sunset streamed through the casement, said, 



Hades. 15 

" Good-by, papa, good-by ! Mamma has come 
for me to-night. Don't cry, papa, we'll all 
meet again in the morning." 

As the angels minister to the heirs of salva- 
tion (Heb. i. 14), why may they not especially 
minister around the death-bed of all the holy ? 
Among the angels proper, the dying have often 
recognized a departed mother, a sister, a brother, 
or some dear relative or friend. They have 
even described one among the angels waiting 
upon them, who must have been a relative, but 
who had died before they were born. If a 
departed prophet ministered to John in his 
exile, why may not near relatives minister to 
the dying ? Why may not those who appear 
to be departed relatives be what they appear ? 
Yes, and why may not the dead minister to 
those who are in health and strength? But 
those who are in health and strength are utterly 
unable to see their holy guards and ministers. 
Their eyes are not opened, as were the eyes of 
Elisha's servant, and as are the eyes of some of 

the dying. They have not that inexplicable 
L 



i6 Hades. 

vision which the dying sometimes, and which 
the dead have. Indeed our departed relatives 
may, though unseen, be able to minister to us, 
be angels to us, and do much more for us than 
they could if they were here in the flesh. 
Doubtless a very thin vail separates them from 
us, and no locality confines them. When they 
come to minister to us they do not leave their 
hadean state. 

The daimonia with which men were possessed 
in the days of our Saviour, were undoubtedly 
Adamic spirits. Daimonion appears to be the 
diminutive of daimon, and if so, means little 
demon. The proper usage of the word will, I 
believe, confine it to the departed of the Adamic 
race. After considerable investigation many 
years ago, I am persuaded that the daimonia 
were human, and the daimones, or demons 
proper, were not. While the possessions were 
generally by the daimonia, they were not by 
them exclusively. The daimones or demons 
proper appear to have had their origin in 
some other world, but like the Adamic spirits 






Hades. ly 

they were not confined to locality nor even to 
world. 

The good dead are as really in the interme- 
diate or separate state as are the bad. Christ 
was as really in hades as Adam is, and as any 
of the dead are. Jacob expected to go there, 
and feared lest sorrow should prematurely 
bring him there. He said (Gen. xxxvii. 35), 
" For I will go down into sheol (hades) unto 
my son mourning." According to Psalm xlix. 
15 ; Acts ii. 27, and the Apostles' Creed, our 
blessed Saviour went into hades, but unlike 
every human being who has entered that state, 
his remain there was a very short time — only a 
few hours. Had he remained a little longer in 
the separate state, the necessary consequence 
would have been, his body, like all other dead 
bodies, would have seen corruption. So short 
was the time he was in hades that corruption 
did not perform its work upon him. The rich 
man entered hades, and " in torment lifted up 
his eyes ;" but Lazarus, though there, was com- 
forted (Luke xvi. 22-28). Job, Jacob, David 
14* 



18 Hades. 

and others, who speak of going to hades, did 
not expect torment there. 

Whether men are happy or miserable in 
hades depends on their previous character. 
Job, Jacob, David and our Saviour must have 
been happy there. The rich man and others 
have experienced hadean torment. In that 
state Satan is completely miserable. 

Locality has little to do with happiness or 
misery. Had Paul, with his heart burning 
with love to Jesus, been cast into the bottom- 
less pit, its consuming flames could not have 
made him miserable. So it is with all the 
holy. Satan before the throne of God, or even 
on it, would carry with him the elements of 
misery, and would therefore be completely mis- 
erable. So of all the unholy. Unpardoned 
sin will surely bite again. It will make its 
possessor completely miserable anywhere — in 
any world. Even if admitted into heaven, and 
to the throne of God, it would make him 
wretched — perfectly so. ~No state, no place, 
and no world can make the unpardoned happy ; 



Hades. iq 

neither can they make the pardoned misera- 
ble. Anything of that kind is an utter impos- 
sibility. 

" We give our souls the wounds they feel, 
We drink the poisonous gall." 

We do these things for ourselves, not othe. 
for us. If tormented in the hadean state, we 
will be our own great tormenters. 

Sin is ten thousand times worse than hell ; 
ten thousand times more to be feared. It only 
makes hades so fearful. Hence the great salva- 
tion — the Bible salvation, and the only salvation 
worth having — is a salvation from sin (Matt. i. 
21). u For he shall save his people from their 
sins " — not in their sins. The Bible makes the 
great salvation to consist in being saved from 
sin ; and then everything else that is desirable 
is a consequence. 

Man would have to be an entirely different 
being from what he is, and the laws and the 
order of the universe entirely different from 
what they are, in order to make a salvation in 



jo Ha des. 

sin a possibility. Heaven to the unpardoned 
would be worse than hell. Indeed it is a great 
mercy that God sends the unpardoned to their 
own place. He who rejects Christ, in doing so 
chooses complete and certain misery. 



SECTION II. 

T)UT, is there a separate or hadean state? 
-*-^ Many doubt it; yet, multitudes in every 
generation have been firmly persuaded there is. 
If there is to be a resurrection, and man is not 
unconscious between death and the resurrection, 
then there that space must be a state ; and call 
it what you will, it is a separate state ; and with 
man it is intermediate, and not final. Indeed, 
if there is unconsciousness after death, then you 
may term it an unconscious state ; but it is not 
properly a separate state. The advocates of 



Ha des, 21 

unconsciousness after death do not believe in 
the separation of the soul and the body. They 
believe that the entire man goes unitedly into 
unconsciousness at death. If there is semi-con- 
sciousness, then you may, as some do, term it a 
dreamy state. 

I speak with the utmost confidence when I 
say there will be a resurrection. I know there 
is a passage in 2 Cor. v. 1—4 that is hard to be 
understood ; and if it were not for many other 
portions of the Word of God, I might be led to 
suppose that it teaches the Swedenborgian doc- 
trine of spiritual bodies being granted to us at 
death, and that therefore there will be no resur- 
rection. The apostle there speaks of a building 
of God — a house from heaven. The import of 
the original prepositions is that this house is in 
heaven, and is to come out from heaven, and 
therefore cannot remain there. 

But what is that house from heaven ? To 
me the subject is still dark ; therefore I shall 
leave it to others, and shall confine myself to 
points more clearly revealed. But whatever 



22 Ha des. 

the passage may mean, it is not sufficient to set 
aside very many plain, positive proofs of the 
resurrection afforded by the Word of God. 

In the original of the New Testament the 
righteous dead are never termed pneumata, nor 
the wicked psuchai. It appears evident from 
the original that the first death must mean more 
in the case of the wicked than of the righteous, 
otherwise how can this fact be explained. I 
repeat it, the wicked dead and the daimones are 
termed pneumata (spirits), but never psuchai 
(souls). The righteous dead are termed psuchai, 
but not pneumata. Why is it so ? Are not 
the righteous dead more than, and the wicked 
merely, pneumata f With the righteous, the 
psuche will afford a covering to the pneuma, 
or spirit, so that they are not so completely 
unclothed as the wicked dead. The wicked are 
by death completely unclothed, but the right- 
eous are not. Satan is completely unclothed, 
and as there has been no form of atonement 
made for him, he must remain so. He is in 
his final state, for he can have no resurrection. 



Ha d e s. 23 

But, while I state these great facts, without 
dwelling upon them, I do not say they afford a 
solution of the difficulty in 2 Cor. v. 1-4. Yet, 
I do positively say, that whatever may be its 
meaning, there are passages that do very plainly 
and unequivocally teach the doctrine of the 
resurrection. Paul evidently teaches us that it 
is dangerous heresy to deny it. 

One of the most positive passages is 1 Cor. 
xv. 12-18, "Now if Christ be preached that he 
rose from the dead, how say some among you 
that there is no resurrection of the dead ? But 
if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is 
Christ not risen : and if Christ be not risen, 
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is 
also vain. Yea, and we are found false wit- 
nesses of God ; because we have testified of God 
that he raised up Christ : whom he raised not 
up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the 
dead rise not, then is not Christ raised : and if 
Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are 
yet in your sins. Then they also which are 
fallen asleep in Christ are perished." This 



24 Ha des. 

passage very plainly teaches that the only hope 
of all the dead is in Christ's and in their own 
resurrection ; that if the dead rise not, Christ 
has not been raised, and if he is not raised, 
those who have fallen asleep in Christ have 
perished. If there is no resurrection, there is 
not a ray of hope for us in all the eternal future. 
There is no hadean heaven — no hadean rewards 
that could satisfy Paul, or that should satisfy 
any son or daughter of Adam. Other passages 
might be quoted showing the importance of the 
resurrection. 

That man is not unconscious between death 
and the resurrection is evident from the cry of 
the souls under the altar (Rev. vi. 9-11), the 
rich man and Lazarus (Lu. xvi. 19-31), the 
penitent thief (Lu. xxiii. 43), Paul's desire to 
depart and be with Christ which is far better 
than to abide in the flesh (Philo. i. 23), and 
other passages. 



Hades. 25 



SECTION III. 

TT7HAT is the separate or hadean state? 

God has said very little about it. You 

may search your Bibles, but you do it in vain 

for much on this subject — -for much to satisfy 

human curiosity. The place to learn about the 

hadean heaven and hell is in sermons, funeral 

notices, obituaries, <fec. Some of the good old 

fathers pretended to tell us almost all about the 

heaven and the hell of the dead. They gave 

the free rein to their imaginations, giving us 

awful pictures of the state of the dead. If half 

they said was true I would be afraid of either 

their heaven or their hell. They represented 

both as being so visionary, ethereal, intangible, 

unearthly and unnatural, that I would far 

prefer the substantiality, naturalness and, sin 

excepted, the God-likeness of earth, to either 

of them. An unfallen and a restored earth is 
15 



26 Ha des. 

worthy of its Creator — adapted to the highest 
type of man ; but I dare not say that of either 
their hadean heaven or hell. Perhaps their 
heaven was a little preferable to the Catholic 
purgatory ; but no more Scriptural, and bearing 
no comparison to the glories of the heaven of 
the Bible. Though there may have been much 
thought bestowed on many points connected 
with the subject, yet in a very important sense, 
it was thoughtless preaching to thoughtless 
hearers. Both had got to running in ruts, and 
they could think of nothing outside of them. 
It was well that their hearers were not inde- 
pendent thinkers, or scepticism might have 
been the consequence. It is true their heaven 
had this grand, most glorious charm in it : God 
and the Lamb and the holy were there, " the 
Lamb was the light of it ;" but there was little 
else that was not repulsive. 

Jeremy Taylor tells us of a poor widow 
whose " ideas of heaven were few and simple. 
She rejected the doctrine that it was a place of 
constant activity, and not of repose, and be- 



Hades. 27 

lieved that when she at length reached it she 
would work no more, but sit in a clean white 
apron and sing psalms." Many years ago I 
was told of a man who said, he could not see 
what pleasure there could be in sitting on 
clouds singing psalms. Recently I read of a 
sailor who thought the pleasures of a warm 
lager-beer saloon were far preferable to the 
comfort of sitting on a cold cloud singing 
psalms. Such are the inferences very many 
minds draw from the descriptions which they 
hear of heaven. Numerous other similar or 
equally ridiculous views of heaven might be 
referred to. 

I have often heard such descriptions of that 
blissful world that I am not surprised that a 
little girl — a girl with the feelings of a girl — 
should have wished to know, " If she were very 
good up in heaven, whether they would not let 
her go down to hell Saturday afternoons and 
play a while." 

Not long since I heard a Sunday-school 
superintendent tell his children, in a prayer- 



28 Ha des. 

meeting, that in heaven the meetings would 
never break up. Had those children stopped 
to think — perhaps some of them did — would 
any of them want to go to such a heaven? 
"Who wants eternal sameness ? I care not what 
it is — how delightful or how perfect our enjoy- 
ment at first may be — sameness will soon sati- 
ate. I care not what it is, eternal sameness 
would be perfectly unendurable ; it would be 
killing. For heaven to be heaven to us, we 
must have eternal change, and all that change 
progression. 

Very many of our hymns are calculated to 
make that blessed place repulsive to thinking 
children and others. They not only place 
heaven 

11 Beyond the bounds of time and space," 

but, according to them, 

Congregations ne'er break up, 
And Sabbaths have no end.'* 

Where must that place be, if it can be a 



Ha des. 29 

place, which is " beyond space ?" Its location 
must be like the bottomless pit of a good 
brother in Indiana, which he located far out 
beyond all creation — beyond all the works of 
God. Who that has any life in him, or the 
feelings of a man, wishes to be carried out to 
that distant Beyond, which has not half the 
substantiality of a cloud, and there sit ever- 
lastingly singing — singing — singing — perhaps, 
Old Hundred. Delightful as that tune is when 
we sing it to the beautiful doxology 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow," 

who could endure to sing it to a hymn as long 

as the 119th Psalm? Delightful as music is, 

who could endure to have it everlastingly? 

We must have change. Death will have to 

transform man into a perfectly different thing 

from what he is, or he will want change, variety, 

endless progression. 

Our hymns tell us that we shall "meet to 

part no more." If so, it must be a sad world 

indeed. Who wants to be eternally pent up 
15* 



jo Ha des. 

in the same congregation, harping incessantly 
and singing away? In contrast with such a 
deplorable world, to which many delight in 
transferring the dead, how glorious is the 
heaven of the Bible ? That blessed book of 
truth tells us that the glorified and resurrected 
shall be "equal to," and "as the angels" — that 
they are " made for a little while lower than the 
angels." Only for a little while — not eternally. 
Angels are not shut up in one world, nor con- 
fined to one set of employments. Their range 
is the universe ; their employments, the whole 
will of God ; the subjects of their investiga- 
tions, all that has been and is. With them, it 
will be eternal change, and all that change pro- 
gression. 

Such is the heaven, and such the employ- 
ments of the angels. Gabriel is at one time 
before the throne of God, in the great heaven 
of heavens — the grand centre of all centres, the 
centre of the universe; at another, he is on 
earth ministering to a saint, it may be a beggar 
or a king — it matters not with him whether it 



Hades. ji 

is a hovel, a dungeon, or a palace; at another, 
he may be on a star so remote from earth that 
the light of its sun has not yet reached our 
globe. Wherever he is, wherever he goes, he 
is learning new lessons of God — of His love, 
grace, mercy, power, works, and providence. 
He is an eternal learner in the school of God, 
and increasingly happy in that school. 

Such, then, is the heaven of the Bible ; such 
the employments of the glorified. Indeed the 
heavens of the Bible, and the heavens of heav- 
ens (the words in the Hebrew are always in the 
plural) are the universe of God — every unfallen 
world. His kingdom is the whole creation. 
Earth is a revolted province of the heavens, 
but will be restored. The universe will be the 
range of the blessed. I know not why it may 
not be so in the hadean state — why in the sepa- 
rate state we may not pass from world to world. 
I know of no passage that looks like confining 
the holy or unholy in an " under-ground world," 
or in a purgatory — a "limbics patrum" or "Urn- 
bus infantum." 

M 



j2 Hades. 

In heaven we will meet, perfectly happy, 
blessed and glorified ; bnt on an errand of plea- 
sure, and fulfilling the will of God, we part. 
We go wherever it is our pleasure and the will 
of God we should go. To-day we meet, but 
soon we may be on worlds which are decillions 
— yes, perhaps centillions of miles apart. Soon 
we shall be together again. These are intima- 
tions that spiritual bodies may pass from world 
to world in a vastly shorter space of time than 
light. How interesting will be those meetings ! 
What glorious recitals we will have to make of 
all the wonders of God's works and providence 
which we have seen and learned in the most 
distant provinces of His realm. What exalt- 
ing views of God we will obtain. How per- 
fectly exhilarating, exalting and blissful the 
sights, sounds, tastes, enjoyments — yes, every- 
thing ! 



Ha des. j j 



SECTION IV. 

a CIENCE, aided by the Word of God, gives 
us intimations that, throughout the uni- 
verse, running in all directions, there may be 
electrical and, perhaps, electroidal wires, by 
means of which communications may pass 
through all parts of God's realm. The glori- 
fied, as well as the unfallen, may have no diffi- 
culty in reading those communications. Worlds 
may be thus drawn together, cemented, united, 
and united under one Head. 

Science and Revelation also unite in inform- 
ing us that to the glorified not merely the 
heaven, but the heavens — all heavens — may be 
opened ; and though their vision of them will 
not be equal to that of God, yet it will be like 
His. An opened universe ! how glorious, how 
God-like the vision ! There will be nothing 
hidden — nothing covered — nothing to intercept 



34 Ha d e s. 

the vision — nothing nnseen. It will be a vision 
of which we can form no conception ; a vision 
opening up to us avenues of knowledge, plea- 
sure and enjoyment now unknown on earth. 
The departing, even before they enter the hadean 
state, sometimes catch faint glimpses of it. The 
departing Stephen saw not heaven, but the 
heavens opened. Many departing, like him, 
have had their eyes supernaturally opened. 
Odylic influences give us a shadow of a percep- 
tion of what it may be. 

We learn that we will reign with Christ ; but 
kings do not all the time sit on the same seat, 
occupy the same place, see the same sights, hear 
the same sounds, and enjoy the same things. 
They are not all the time engaged with the same 
employments and occupying their minds with 
the same studies. So it will be with the glori- 
fied. Every avenue of real pleasure and en- 
joyment will be open — perfectly and eternally 
open, and eternally expanding. There will be 
all that is necessary to perfectly and eternally 
satisfy every rational desire, and every God- 



Ha des. 35 

implanted feeling. All that is innocently 
human and God-implanted will be gratified. 
Human tastes will not only be gratified, but 
perfected. All innocent and exalted human de- 
sires will be gratified to the full. It will be a 
world suited to the human, and not the inhu- 
man. The glorified will be eternally advancing 
— eternally progressing toward the infinite per- 
fections of the great Jehovah. 

In what I have said of our hymns, and the 
unnatural heaven of those hymns, let no one 
charge me with irreverence. The heaven of 
many of our hymns, and the heaven of which 
we often hear, is not the heaven of the Bible. 
It only exists in men's imaginations. It is 
Ptolemaic, not divine. According to Ptolemy 
there was no solid world but this. The earth 
was the grand centre of all things, and every- 
thing visible rolled around it. All outside of 
it must therefore be intangible and unsubstan- 
tial. But the Bible speaks of heaven, heavens, 
and heavens of heavens ; and as it would not do 
to entirely deny it, they therefore taught that 



j6 Hades. 

if heaven is indeed a place, it must be almost 
as unsubstantial as a vision — more intangible 
than a cloud. Whether either heaven or hell 
can be a place, has been a matter of doubt with 
many. If heaven can be a place, spirits are 
much better suited to it than substantial resur- 
rected bodies. As heaven lost its substantiality 
— perhaps, its place — so the resurrection lost its 
importance ; it was almost lost sight of, and 
death was magnified ; it was almost made the 
great all in all. Multitudes, while they have 
not denied it, have felt no need of a resurrec- 
tion. It has almost ceased to be an object of 
desire. It was not so with holy men in the 
days of the apostles. A Ptolemaic, cloud-like, 
intangible, luminiferous ether heaven, is not the 
heaven of the Bible. That — yes, the heavens of 
the Bible are solid, substantial, glorious worlds, 
fit for the abode of substantial men. It is a 
world worth living for, worth dying for — a 
world worthy of God. 

With multitudes, if you ask them if there is 
such a place as heaven, they know not what 



Ha des. j/ 

answer to make ; but ask them if there is such 
a state, and they have no hesitancy in answering, 
yes. If there is no solid, substantial outside 
world, what became of the bodies of Enoch and 
Elijah? What became of the risen glorified 
body of the Son of God, which could be 
handled and felt, and which ate and drank with 
men ? Bid it ascend to heaven, or did it only 
seem to ascend ? Did the Spirit of God cast 
that body on some mount, or did he outside of 
our atmosphere leave it, and bodiless, enter 
some unsubstantial heaven? 

The Book of God says, that those who love 
him shall inherit substance (Prov. viii. 21). 
It promises us that that is real, substantial, sat- 
isfying, glorious and eternal. Shall we expect 
it — or mere visions? 
16 



38 Ha des. 



SECTION V. 

TjlREQUENTLY it is much easier to tell 
■=*= what is not, than what is true. We can 
say positively that a doctrine is not true, when, 
perhaps, we may be unable to clearly state what 
is the truth ; so I may be much better at stating 
negatives than positives, in denying than in as- 
serting. 

With perhaps one exception the term heaven 
is not applied to the separate state. When 
Paul speaks of the third heaven he probably 
refers to it. Satan does not deal in pure, un- 
mixed error. It will not answer his purpose. 
His bitterest pills of error must be coated with 
the sugar of truth. The worst of errorists may 
often hold some very precious truths. In the 
teachings of Somnambulists, Spiritualists and 
other and older forms of grievous errors, there 
is some truth, and it may be truth which is gen- 



Ha des. jp 

erally rejected. I think there is some evidence 
to believe that by the third heaven Paul means 
something like what those soul-ruining errorists 
do by the third sphere. But, mark you, I 
do not speak positively. I will endorse nothing 
which Spiritualism teaches, unless I can have a 
more or less plain "thus saith the Lord." I 
would about as soon believe the plain positive 
teachings of Satan as of Spiritualism. It is 
Satan-inspired, and it is baptized paganism 
(Deut. xviii. 11). [See the Vulgate and Douay 
translations.] But even Paganism taught much 
truth ; so much — and so much did the counter- 
feit resemble the true that even those who had 
the oracles of God were led to halt between 
two opinions. If Paul does not there refer to 
the separate state, I cannot think of a single 
passage in the Bible in which the state between 
death and resurrection is called heaven. 

With reference to hell it is different. The 
old Anglo-Saxon word hette was about synony- 
mous with the Hebrew word sheol and the 
Greek hades. It was the proper translation of 



40 Ha des. 

the word — I believe, always proper. I ean say 
was , but I cannot say is ; no, no ! owing to the 
mutations of language, that word, like the 
Anglo-Saxon word saule, (soul,) has almost en- 
tirely changed its meaning. We now use the 
word hell as synonymous with that place which 
will be the ultimate abode and reward of the 
wicked, and which the Bible calls " the lake of 
fire," " the bottomless pit," &c. — words which 
many of the orthodox, as well as heterodox, be- 
lieve are mere figures. Ah ! many who think 
they are very orthodox, like their Universalist 
brethren, merely believe in figures. The only 
question at issue between them is, what is the 
import of those figures. But what does it avail 
if both alike deny the realities — if both alike 
deny there is any such place as hell ? Any one 
knows that the bodies of the wicked after their 
resurrection cannot be cast into and punished in 
that which is not a place. 

With reference to the change in the meaning 
of the word hell, any one may satisfy himself 
by consulting Webster on its derivation. With 



Ha des. 41 

reference to the word soul, I never could get 
any satisfaction until I got it from reading the 
Anglo-Saxon. It was once the proper transla- 
tion of the Greek word psuche, but is no longer. 
We no longer have an English word which ex- 
presses the various meanings of the Greek word 
psuche, or the Hebrew ruach. 

As the word is now used, it is never proper 
to translate hades, hell. I repeat it, I believe it 
was once proper to translate it hell ; now, never. 
So, once it was always proper to translate psuche, 
soul ; but now, never. Owing to the changes 
of language, those two words had better be 
transferred into the English, just as baptize 
and many other words have been. 

Hades never means the grave. The Hebrews 
expressed the grave by the word gever, and 
never by sheol; and the Greeks by tophos and 
tophe, mnema and mnemeion, and never by 
hades. On this point I speak positively. I 
would just as soon think of translating thanatos, 
grave. From considerable investigation many 
years ago I am persuaded there is not a single 

16* 



42 Ha des. 

passage in the whole Word of God in which 
hades means the grave. 

It is not properly a place. We might with 
just as much propriety call thanatos (death) a 
place ; and yet, every being must of necessity 
have a place. Every separate spirit must as 
really have a place as every dead body. We 
cannot think of anything existing without local- 
ity. But locality does not make hades, nor is 
hades in any sense locality. Those in hades, 
while they may have their home, are not con- 
fined to it. I am confident this is true of both 
the righteous and the wicked dead. 

The lost inhabitants of the Asteroid are as 
really in the hadean state as are the dead of 
Adam's race. I say the lost inhabitants of the 
once glorious world ; certainly no such catas- 
trophe could have befallen any world, as has 
that which once revolved between Mars and 
Jupiter, rending it to fragments, if there had 
not been a moral revolt against the Creator 
and Lord. The Asteroideans must, therefore, 
be in the separate or hadean state. As it is 



Ha des. 43 

probable no form of atonement lias been made 
for them, they can therefore have no resurrec- 
tion, consequently they can have no deliverance 
from that state. 

The Word of God gives us some reason to 
hope that that world will be restored. Perhaps 
it may be restored to more than its primitive 
glory. God's creation there, as well as in our 
own Avorld, may be perfected. For the Aster- 
oideans I know of no possible hope — no resto- 
ration. 

Many passages of Scripture render it evident 
that Satan is in the hadean state ; and such was 
his sin that no provision could possibly be made 
for him, and therefore, to him it must be the 
ultimate and not the intermediate state. He is 
not confined to place, but to state. Lexicogra- 
phers to the contrary, I am persuaded that the 
true derivation of aidios is not from ai always, 
but from aides, hades ; and therefore the mean- 
ing must be hadean and not eternal. Wherever 
the word is used in the original, hadean or a 
cognate word will much better express the 



44 Ha des, 

meaning. The whole tenor of God's Word 
shows that Satan is not confined to place, but is 
going about like a roaring lion. At the com- 
mencement of the millennium he will be con- 
fined to place, but not until then. That place 
will not be hades, but the bottomless pit. 
Neither is he confined by eternal, but by hadean 
chains in the hadean state (Jude vi.) Every- 
one who believes in the Word of God, and a 
personal devil, must be assured that Satan is not 
confined by eternal chains to any one place, nor 
to ten thousand. Nay, he is not confined to 
any one world. He will not be confined to 
place till he is consigned to the pit. To say 
that he is confined to any one place is to con- 
tradict many plain passages of Scripture. 

Hades is not "an under-ground world," nor 
an upper-ground world, nor any other kind of 
a ground world. There is not a single passage 
in the Bible which proves that the home of the 
righteous dead, or that hades, is to them "an 
under-ground world." There are some passages 
that would seem to justify men in calling the 



Hades. 45 

home of the wicked dead "an under-ground 
world" (Ezek. xxxii. 17-32; Isa. xiv. 9, 15). 
But, as I have said, no difference where their 
home is, it is not that which constitutes hades 
or the separate state. In that state the wicked 
may or may not be a large portion of their time 
in " an under-ground world ;" but that cannot 
in truth be said of the righteous dead. 

As hades is only a state — the state of the 
dead — the resurrected cannot possibly be in it 
any more than men in the flesh can be in it. 
The very idea is absurd. Those who imagine 
there is a possibility of Christ being in that 
state think of a place instead of a state. Christ, 
and those who were resurrected with him, hav- 
ing been delivered from that state cannot still 
be in it. Christ can no more be in that state 
since his resurrection than you or I can — no 
more than Enoch or Elijah can. Christ has 
eternally left that state, no more to return to 
it ; we have not entered it ; Enoch and Elijah 
have not and never will enter it. The captives 
which Jesus led forth from death's realm at his 



46 Ha des. 

own resurrection — the trophies of his victory- 
over death and hades — and who with him en- 
tered the Holy City, have also eternally escaped 
from that state. 



SECTION VI. 

ryi O the righteous the hadean state is not one 
-^ of perfect reward ; and, doubtless, the same 
may be said of the wicked. Yet, it is glorious 
when compared with the trials, sorrows, weari- 
ness, sins and absence from the Lord, which 
are incident to our fallen state on earth. But 
it is not to be compared with what we shall be 
when we shall be like Him. Those who enter 
the hadean state are far from enjoying what 
the resurrected and the changed will ; doubt- 
less, far from what Enoch and Elijah are 



Hades. 4-/ 

With reference to the souls under the altar, 



we learn that they are not satisfied ; that they 
are crying out for what they shall be after the 
resurrection. The worthies mentioned in the 
eleyenth chapter of Hebrews, though they died 
in faith, embracing the promises, were not made 
perfect, and are not to be made perfect without 
us (Heb. xi. 39, 40). Paul expected his crown 
at the " appearing of the Lord, the righteous 
Judge/' and not before (2 Tim. 4, 8). It is to 
be "at that day." The coronation of all the 
saints takes place at the same time, and not 
before our Lord has taken to him his great 
power and reigns. 

The separate state is not spoken of in the 
Bible as being an object of desire. The lan- 
guage of Job and Paul comes the nearest it ; 
but their great expectations were at the resur- 
rection and not before. Job, who was most 
sorely tried, to whom life was a burden, and 
who cursed the day of his birth, says : " Oh, 
that thou wouldst hide me in sheol (hades) that 
thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be 
X 



4-8 Ha des. 

past." But is that prayer right ? Was all 
that that good and holy man said and did right ? 
Does it not sound too much like the desire of 
those wicked men of whom we read, "And in 
those days shall men seek death and shall not 
find it ; and shall desire to die and death shall 
flee from them " (Eev. ix. 6) ? 

In that state there are many things which are 
desirable, and some which are not. To the 
wicked there is nothing desirable. There seems 
to be no good reason why they should desire 
death. The fervent prayer of Hezekiah ex- 
presses anything rather than a desire to die and 
enter hades (Is. xxxviii. 1-3). We dare not 
condemn his prayer ; we dare not say it was not 
indited by the Holy Spirit. 

Long before I could, on this subject, even 
"see through a glass darkly," I had observed 
that the great desire of Job, Paul, and others, 
was to the resurrection. When not sorely tried 
death was not desired and prayed for ; it was 
not to them a great object of desire, but the 
resurrection was. 



Hades. 49 

It may have been observed that there are very 

few Christians who desire to die. Very few who, 

when in a proper state of mind, pray for death ; 

but the contrary is common. It is common to 

hear men thanking God for deliverance from 

doath. But why should they not rather thank 

God for death, and pray to him therefor, if it 

is so exceedingly desirable? When they are 

not suffering, unless they are speaking according 

to traditional theology, they do not tell us of 

desiring to die. Neither language nor acts 

show that they have any more desire to die than 

Hezekiah had. They may often sing hymns 

which express a strong desire, but with the 

most of singers it is but mere poetry ; it does 

not express the true feelings of their hearts. 

Very few Christians in a healthful state of body 

and mind desire to die ; but the great mass do 

spend their lives in more or less bondage 

through fear of death. Usually the feelings of 

the most holy are like those of the holy 

Hezekiah. 

A very holy woman says of herself: " Her 
17 



§0 Hades. 

first waking thoughts were of Him who had 
watched her slumbers and lightened her eyes 
that she slept not the sleep of death. Thus she 
gave her Divine Preserver the morning saluta- 
tion which renewed her daily intercourse with 
heaven." 

How would we be astonished to hear men in 
their ordinary prayers pray for death as they do 
in their spiritual songs. If it is right in the 
one form of prayer, why not in the other ? 
Besides, what is worse, we often require children 
to sing the very opposite of what they desire. 
It would astonish us to hear happy children in 
health and strength, talk as we make them sing 
Sunday-school hymns. 

Inspired men and the early fathers did not 
magnify death as we moderns have been in the 
habit of doing. They never expressed a will- 
ingness to suffer the loss of all things for any- 
thing that was merely hadean. Their earnest 
desire, like that of creation, was "to the adop- 
tion, to wit., the redemption of the body" — 
namely, the resurrection. Paul did not expect 



Hades. 5/ 

his crown and kingdom while in tne separate 

state; not before the coming of his Lord (2 
Tim. 4, 8). 



SECTION VII. 

TT A D E S is never spoken of as a state of 
reward ; not as a state or time when men 
shall receive according to the deeds done in the 
body. To the righteous as well as the wicked 
it is in a very important sense the reward of 
transgression ; not their own transgression, but 
Adam's. If man had not sinned, not one of 
the human family would have entered the 
hadean state; not one would have died. In- 
deed, death was the threatening pronounced 
against sin. "And death by sin " (Rom. v. 12). 
Hades is the necessary consequence of death. 
To all beings made in the image and likeness of 



52 Ha des. 

God it is the necessary consequence. The un- 
fallen do not die, and therefore do not, cannot 
enter the separate state. In the eternal blessed 
world there will be no death, and therefore no 
hades, because there will be no sin. They are 
the inseperable concomitants of sin. Wher- 
ever there is no sin there can be no death, and 
therefore no hades. Death and hades are con- 
fined to an age and a world of sin. Though 
brutes die, they do not enter hades because they 
become unconscious. 

Men die the first death because Adam sinned. 
They will live again, that is they will rise from 
the hadean state, because Jesus died. The first 
death is as really — not as fearfully — the conse- 
quence of sin as the second death. The holiest 
of all the dead have been held by hadean chains 
in the hadean state because they are sinners. 
Had there been no sin in our world, the separate 
state would not have existed in it. The first 
death is the result of Adam's sin. Hence, in- 
fants who have not been guilty of actual sin, 
and the holiest of all the dead, though they have 



Ha d es. sj 

been washed from their own sins in the blood 
of the Lamb, could not escape it. 

As the second death is the consequence of 
our own sin, through faith in Christ we may 
escape it, and only through faith in Christ. 
Where there is personal guilt, there must be 
personal faith in order to escape the conse- 
quences of that guilt. Infants dying, having 
had no sin of their own, need no faith of their 
own in order to be saved. The blood of Christ 
extends as far as Adam's sin. Hence, all have 
a resurrection from the first death whether they 
have had faith or not — whether they have had 
personal guilt or not — whether they may be in- 
fants or adults. From the first death the blood 
of Christ secures a universal resurrection. 
There will be no exceptions. Since Jesus has 
died for us, we need not fear Adam's sin. But 
it is of little consequence to us that the blood 
of Christ releases us from. the final results of 
Adam's sin if it does not save us from our own. 
Since Christ has made an atonement for us, 

though we suffer and will suffer from Adam's 
17* 



§4 Hades. 

sin, it is only our own sins that we have to 
fear ; only our own sins that will eternally con- 
demn us; nothing but our own sins cause us 
remorse; nothing but our own sins to repent 
of; nothing but our own sins expose us to the 
second death. Relying on Christ, our own sins 
need no more be feared than Adam's. 



SECTION VIII. 

TJADES is an unnatural state. Our natu- 
-*- ral state is that in which God created us. 
He created man not only pure and holy, but in 
his own image and likeness — a triune being — a 
trinity, as he is a trinity. By death he ceases 
to be triune, but by the resurrection he will be 
restored to that triune state of existence. It is 
improper to call that state to which sin reduces 
man a natural one. To the righteous there will 



Ha d es. 55 

be in the resurrection, the perfect, eternal and 
glorious union of body, soul and spirit. That 
will be a perfectly natural state, and it is one in 
which we will wish eternally to remain. The 
separate state is one which is universally 
dreaded. The dread of death and the separate 
state is implanted in every human being, and 
nothing but all-abounding grace can overcome 
it. Death is never sought for its own sake. It 
is only by implicit confidence on Him who con- 
quered death and hades, that we overcome and 
rise above the fear of death. The great mass 
of Christians spend their lives in bondage 
through fear of death. There are very few 
Christians who are as fearless of death as of 
life ; very few who can at all times say "not as 
I will, but as thou wilt." On the death-bed 
the most desirable frame of mind is not to have 
a desire of death, but to be perfectly resigned 
to the- will of God. A good woman who, when 
sick, was asked whether she was willing to 
live or die, replied : " Which God pleaseth." 
Then one standing by said : " But if God 



56 Ha d es. 

were to refer it to you, which would you 
choose ? " " Truly/' said she, " if God were to 
refer it to me, I would even refer it to Him 
again." Such a frame of mind is vastly more 
desirable, more pleasing in the sight of God, 
more healthful than strong desires for death 
and praying for death. 

I doubt the propriety of singing many of 
our hymns about death. They express desires 
which are unnatural to the great mass in all our 
worshiping assemblies. Very few have so far 
overcome the fear of death that they can truly 
and heartily sing hymns which express a strong 
desire to die. Ah ! many who sing those hymns 
have a strong dread and fear of death. Many 
of our hymns express desires which their hearts 
have never felt ; but they are called upon to 
sing them, and do sing them. 

" I would not live always," &c. The early 
Christian fathers would rather have sung it, " I 
would live always, I ask not to die." 

They were looking for, expecting and desir- 
ing eternal life by the coming of their Lord. 



Ha des. 57 

They neither sought nor desired death. They 
would have regarded it as impious to have 
prayed for death. They had been taught by 
apostolic and inspired teachers to pray for the 
coming of their Lord and for life through him, 
and not for death. 

What inspired prayer ever taught them or us 
to desire and pray for death ? Where is any 
such thing taught in the Bible ? Truly there 
is a great deal of excellent poetry which is very 
bad theology, and vice versa. Much of it which 
is true is only suited to be sung by those who 
have received dying grace. We have also many 
things called Sabbath-school hymns, which de- 
serve neither the name of poetry nor theology, 
which our dear little ones are required to sing. 
They are sadly destitute of rythm and truth. 
Does it matter not what our children sing, pro- 
vided the tune is good ? 



$8 Ha des. 



SECTION IX. 

TTADES is a state in which patriarchs, 
■ -^ prophets, apostles and early Christians 
did not wish to remain. Job, Paul and others 
looked to the resurrection as the consummation 
of their hopes, and not to death. With Paul, 
so important was the resurrection — not death — 
not the separate state — that he considered the 
dead in Christ to have perished if there is no 
resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 16, 18). In his esti- 
mation the resurrection was one of the great 
links in the Gospel chain, any one of which 
being broken, there could be no salvation. 

I have referred to the souls under the altar 
(Rev. vi. 9-11). Their cry does not express 
satisfaction and contentment — not a willingness 
to remain forever in that state, but an ardent 
expectation which cannot be realized till their 



Ha des. 5p 

blood has been avenged on the earth. Their 
eager cry was for vengeance, and yet they were 
not vindictive. Such feelings would have been 
unholy and unheavenly — far from being Christ- 
like — but they ardently longed for their own re- 
ward. They wanted to be perfect (Heb. xi. 39, 
40). They wanted to have their sin-blots for- 
ever removed from their bodies, just as they had 
already been from their souls (Acts iii. 19). 
They knew that their bodies 7 cleansing and re- 
newal could not come till the resurrection, nor 
the resurrection till their avengement. 

It is not a state in which "death is swallowed 
up in victory/ 7 but the very opposite. Many 
hymns, sermons and obituary notices would 
lead us to believe that such is the fact, but 
there is nothing like it in the Bible. It is not 
" true as preaching." The most holy men who 
have died, instead of having triumphed over 
death and hades, are to lie under their power 
till the resurrection. They are now prisoners — 
Peter, Paul and all the Apostles are prisoners — 
bound by hadean chains in the hadean state. 



60 Ha des. 

They have gone down to the bars of hades (Job 
xvii. 16). Their death has been happy, for all 
their prospects beyond the grave were bright 
and glorious. While they are absent from the 
body they rest and are gloriously present with 
their Lord ; yet, when they died, they fell by 
death's sting and now lie under the power of 
hades. 

At the resurrection all the holy, like their 
glorified Lord, will triumph over death and 
hades, but not before. Paul says (1 Cor. xv. 
54, 55), " So when this corruptible shall have 
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have 
put on immortality, then shall be brought to 
pass the saying that is written, Death is swal- 
lowed up in victory. O death, where is thy 
sting ? O grave (O hades), where is thy vic- 
tory ?" The original is not grave, but hades. 
Here it is plainly taught that it is at the resur- 
rection, and not before, that the man is com- 
pletely and eternally triumphant over death, 
hades and corruption. Paul, as plainly and ex- 
plicitly as language can, places the triumphing 



Hades^ 61 

over death and nades at the resurrection. It is 
a mystery how men could reverse his language 
and try to make him say the very opposite 
of what he does. What right have unin- 
spired men to doubt or question his plain, 
positive language? What right has any of 
us to teach the very opposite of what he 
taught ? 

The righteous in spite of, and not in conse- 
quence of, death and hades, are blessed and 
happy. Though absent from the body — though 
in an unnatural state — though unrewarded, they 
are present with the Lord. It is not death and 
hades that bring the happiness, blessedness and 
wonderful glory : far from it ; it is Jesus does 
that. He is the glory of every world, of every 
place, of every state that has glory in it. He 
is the source of light, glory, joy, peace and 
blessedness to every heart that has them. The 
great glory and blessedness which I see in the 
hadean state is the presence and the enjoyment 
of the Lord. "If I make my bed in hades, 
behold, thou art there " (Ps. cxxxix. 8). Christ 



62 Ha d es. 

though he has forever left that state, can be with 
us in that state, and we with him. 

Though hades is an unnatural and dreaded 
state and the reward of transgression, yet he 
who relies wholly on Christ — hangs on him — 
is completely blessed in and with him. Not 
even hades can harm such. It is not the world, 
the place nor the state, but it is Christ, only 
Christ, that gives glory and blessedness. Hang- 
ing on Christ, " all things work together for their 
good " (Rom. viii. 28). Death and hades are but 
a part of " all things." Christ causes even the 
curses and the consequences of transgression to 
prove great and glorious blessings to His people. 

I dislike exceedingly to hear death and hades 
magnified, but I cannot too much magnify and 
glorify our blessed Saviour. I cannot too much 
magnify our perfect safety and blessedness in 
Him. I do not like to hear men talk so much 
about heaven, but they cannot talk too much 
about Christ. He is the glory of heaven — 
" The Lamb is the light of it " — the Alpha and 
Omega of it. That the dead who die in the 



Ha des. 6j 

Lord are blessed we may thank Jesus — not 
death nor hades. 

The souls under the altar, though not satis- 
fied and expecting something better, have white 
robes given to them. The holiest of all the 
dead, though unnaturally absent from the body 
and having suffered death because of sin, are 
gloriously present with the Lord. Yes, relying 
on Jesus, no state, nor place, nor world can 
harm us — only good can happen to us. Whether 
it is life or death, hades or the glorious beyond, 
it is from glory to increasing glory. But glo- 
rious and blessed as the hadean state is to the 
holy, it is not to be compared with what shall 
be and what shall be enjoyed when we shall not 
only be with Him, but be like Him — have 
bodies like His — have happiness like His — 
glory like His — a reward like His, and shall sit 
with Him on His throne. It is very glorious 
and blessed to be before the throne (Eev. vii. 9, 
15), but even in glory that is not to be com- 
pared with sitting with Him on His throne 

(Rev. iii. 21). 

O 



6/f. Ha des. 

To the righteous Hades is paradise, Abra- 
ham's bosom, elysium, and very glorious bless- 
edness. To the wicked it is Gehenna, Tartaros, 
torment. These names were used to express the 
views held by the Hebrews and the Pagans. 
Pagan theology had many truths . in common 
with the Jewish, which doubtless had been re- 
ceived by tradition from the fathers. When 
Peter used the word Tartaros, he used it in the 
same sense in which the Greeks used it, and not 
in one which would have been deceptive to 
them. He could use that word instead of the 
ordinary Hebrew words, because it as truly ex- 
pressed the mind of the Spirit. For him to 
have used it in any other than the common 
sense, would have been to have deceived his 
Greek readers — an idea which we cannot enter- 
tain for a moment. 



Ha des 65 



SECTION X. 

nn H E hadean state is short. Yes, blessed be 
-*- God, it is short. In the Bible the coming 
of our Lord is represented as drawing nigh. 
Perhaps there are none who deserve the name 
of orthodox, but believe that at the coming of 
Christ those who sleep in Jesus shall rise. They 
believe that then — not before — when l - this 
mortal shall have put on immortality," the soul 
shall be re-united to the body and eternally re- 
main so. And who that is orthodox believes the 
resurrection is far oif? Even if it were more 
than one thousand years distant, that will soon 
be past. The hadean state is very far from being 
eternal. Soon it will be in the past. Yet 
how common it is to hear those who have died 
spoken of as " gone to eternity," " entered eter- 
nity," " gone to the eternal world," &c. I re- 
18* 



66 Ha d e s. 

cently picked up a circular which says : " In a 
short time we too shall be in the eternal world." 
Recently I read : " Miss Livermore, who visited 
Jerusalem five times or more to convert the 
Jews, without knowing a word of their lan- 
guage and without money for her support, has 
at last entered upon another and endless sphere 
of being/' &c. Does the writer believe that 
Miss Livermore will have no resurrection? 

According to the Bible, the hadean state is 
short, imperfect and unsatisfying; but all be- 
yond it, to the righteous, is perfection and eter- 
nal glory ; all then shall be satisfying. 

Death and hades are very frequently person- 
ified, and to the human family the one is the 
certain consequence of the other. As might be 
expected, they are very frequently mentioned in 
the same connection. Wherever man is they 
go, and go together. They cannot be separated. 
Deliverance from the one implies deliverance 
from the other. Into whatever world sin enters, 
death and Hades unitedly enter. They are the 
concomitants of sin. 



Ha des, 6 j 

Together death and Hades are to be cast into 
the lake of lire (Key. xx. 14). If they were 
not cast there, there conld be no second death 
in the pit. Did death enter the pit without 
Hades, annihilation would be the certain conse- 
quence. As they unitedly enter the pit, and 
there do their work, the final state of all the 
unpardoned must be the same as that of Satan. 
As the holy shall be "equal to" and "as" the 
unfallen angels (Mark xii. 25 ; Luke xx. 36), 
so the unholy shall be "equal to" and "as" 
the fallen angels. They shall be tartarized 
(2 Pet. ii. 4). 

Like the word " daimonion," the word Hades 
is frequently used in a bad sense, but primarily 
and properly, it is alike applicable to the good 
and to the bad. The daimonion is one of the 
departed of the human family without any 
reference to their character ; but in the New 
Testament, the word is almost, if not altogether, 
applied to the wicked dead — the morally un- 
clean. So while Hades may very generally be 
applied to the state of the wicked dead, yet 



68 Ha des. 

Jacob repeatedly speaks of his going to Sheol 
or Hades, but certainly not the place, nor the 
state of the wicked dead. Job prayed to be hid 
in Sheol or Hades. Certainly he did not use 
the word in a bad sense, or it would be a strange 
prayer. 

Perhaps it is when used in a bad sense, that 
sacred writers contrast its depth to the height 
of heaven. The word may also be used with 
latitude, and in a bad sense, when the writer 
speaks of digging into it. 

During the eighth, and all the coming ages 
of the ages of the ages, to the human family, 
there shall be no death, and therefore no Hades. 
Of all the redeemed and the resurrected, as well 
as of the restored race, it may be said, " Neither 
shall there be any more death." Because this 
age is the age of sin — the " aion poneros " — 
therefore, it is the age, and the only age of 
death and Hades. The seventh, the evil age, 
the age of sin, commenced with the close of the 
sixth day of creation, and will close with the 
millennium. Then the eighth age will begin. 



Ha des. 69 

Then evil on the earth will have ceased. Then 
the work of creation will recommence, and God 
will " create all things new" (Rev. xxi. 5, et al.). 

There are many things respecting Hades, of 
which we cannot speak positively, and therefore 
I shall not even refer to them. I have prefer- 
red to speak of those things which are more 
clearly revealed — things which, though I have 
not always given the proof, yet it can easily be 
done. They are points on which we have a 
" thus saith the Lord." 

It has been my effort not to magnify death 
nor Hades, but Jesus. They are enemies, and 
are only spoken of in the Bible as enemies. 
Satan would fain have us contradict inspiration, 
and call them friends. Jesus is a friend who is 
infinitely stronger than they — yes, than all our 
enemies. Therefore we need fear no evil. If 
we place implicit confidence in him, he will 
eventually give us the victory over all our foes. 

THE END. 



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